Walter W. Skeat

A GLOSSARY

 

OF

 

TUDOR AND STUART WORDS

 

ESPECIALLY FROM THE DRAMATISTS

 

COLLECTED BY

 

WALTER W. SKEAT

 

Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in

the University of Cambridge, 1878-1912

 

 

EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY

 

A. L. MAYHEW

M.A., Wadham College, Oxford

 

 

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1914

---

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON    EDINBURGH    GLASGOW    NEW YORK

TORONTO    MELBOURNE    BOMBAY

HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[Transcriber’s Notes]

EDITOR’S PREFACE

In the summer of 1910 I was staying at Llandrindod, and had the pleasure of meeting there my old friend Professor Skeat. Of course we had many a long talk about our favourite studies, and about his literary plans. He was always planning some literary task, for before he had finished one work, he had either begun another, or had another in prospect. I said to him one day, ‘You’re always working, do you ever find time for recreation?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘when I want to amuse myself, I take up some old play.’ This story explains the genesis of this book.

Like John Gilpin’s wife, it seems that though on pleasure he was bent, he had a frugal mind. He did not forget business. When reading Ben Jonson or Beaumont and Fletcher he had pencil in hand, and whenever he came to a word that might prove a stumbling-block to the general reader, he noted that word, and eventually wrote it on a separate slip (note-paper size) with exact reference and explanation. In July, 1911, in Oxford, when we were together for the last time, the professor told me about the book he was preparing—mainly consisting of the words he had collected in reading the Tudor and Stuart dramatists. He did not intend it to be a big book. When I asked whether it would contain quotations like Nares’ Glossary, he said it would contain only a few quotations, and those short ones, and would consist mostly of explanations and references, with brief etymologies. I heard no more of the book during his lifetime. But frequent letters passed between us on the etymologies of English words, many of which he was meeting with in the material he was collecting. On October 6, 1912, that eager, enthusiastic spirit passed away, to the regret of all who work in the field of English philology, of all who love the English tongue, wherever on this habitable globe they may chance to live. Not long after, in November, I heard from Mrs. Skeat that her husband had left material for a Glossary of Rare Words, in slips amounting to nearly 7,000, arranged in alphabetical order, and that Professor Skeat’s executors would be very glad if I would be able to edit and prepare the work for publication. I agreed to do this, on condition that the executors should ask the advice of a pupil of Dr. Skeat, an eminent English scholar, and also, of course, that the Delegates of the Clarendon Press would consent to the arrangement. On December 4 I received a letter from the Clarendon Press, informing me that the Delegates accepted my offer. A day or two after the box containing the MS. arrived, and on December 9 I addressed myself to the task. With the exception of a short intermission in July, the work has had my continuous and undivided attention for one year.

On examination of the MS. it appeared that, although Professor Skeat had arranged the material in the form of a Glossary, he had not put the finishing touches to the book (many slips were practically duplicates or triplicates), and had not even finally limited the scope: the title of the book was not settled.

And now it will be proper to state as clearly as possible what the Editor thought it his duty to do in preparing his friend’s work for publication. In the first place he did not think that it fell within his province to make any considerable addition to the Word-list. The Vocabulary remains much as Professor Skeat left it. But it was found necessary, in going over the work, to make additions in many articles, in order to explain the history of the word, or to illustrate its meaning; connecting links had to be supplied, where the meanings of a word apparently had no connexion with one another. In this part of the work the Editor found great help in the New English Dictionary; and it will be seen that there is hardly a page of this book on which there does not occur the significant abbreviation (NED.). With the same help the definitions have been revised, and in many cases made more definite and explicit in order to explain the passage referred to. Professor Skeat’s plan was to give, as a rule, only references; it has been thought advisable to add many quotations, especially in cases where a quotation appeared necessary to illustrate a rare meaning of a word. In order to secure uniformity in arrangement many of the articles had to be re-written. For the illustrative matter, outside the literary English of the Tudor and Stuart period; the comparison of Tudor and Stuart words with provincial words found in the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD.); the exact references to earlier English—Middle English (ME.) and Old English (OE.); as well as the citation of cognate foreign forms, the Editor is responsible. In giving this additional matter he believes that he would have had the cordial approval of Professor Skeat, and hopes that he has added to the usefulness of the book.

If I may be allowed I would end on a personal note. I have thought it a great privilege to have been invited to complete the work of one held in such honour and esteem as Professor Skeat. And it has been a great pleasure to do something which might show, however inadequately, my gratitude for a friendship of nearly forty years. I wish the work that has been done on his book had been better done; I wish that it could have been undertaken by some one better equipped for the task, by one who had a more intimate acquaintance with the literature of the period dealt with. I hope that the imperfections of the book as it leaves my hands will be treated leniently. No one can be more conscious of them than he who is now bidding farewell to the task.

I have been fortunate in obtaining the help of two scholars who are masters of their subjects. My friend of many years, Dr. Henry Bradley, one of the Editors of The New English Dictionary, has taken an interest in the work from the first, which has been most encouraging. His views of what had to be done with the material I found, after I had made some progress in my task, coincided with those I had independently formed. He has most kindly read the proof-sheets throughout, and has made many valuable suggestions which I have gladly adopted. Mr. Percy Simpson, who has made a special study of the dramatists of the period treated, and particularly of Ben Jonson, has also kindly read the proof-sheets, and from his familiarity with the textual criticism of these authors has been able to correct some errors in the texts cited. I cannot conclude without expressing my thanks to the ‘reader’ for the accuracy with which the proof-sheets represented the MS., as well as for his judicious and conscientious use of the blue pencil.

A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford,

Dec. 9, 1913.

BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK

Aasen, Ivar; Norsk Ordbog, 1873.

Alphita, a Medico-Botanical Glossary, ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1887).

Aneren Riwle, c. 1230; ed. J. Morton (Camden Soc., 1873).

Anglo-Saxon Gospels, ed. W. W. Skeat. The Gospels in West-Saxon, Northumbrian and Mercian Versions, 1871-87.

Ascham, Roger; Toxophilus, 1545, ed. Arber, 1868.

Awdeley, John; Fraternitye of Vacabondes, 1565, ed. E. Viles and F. J. Furnivall (EETS., extra series, 1869).

Aydelotte, F.; Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds (Oxford Historical and Literary Studies, vol. 1, 1913).

Babee’s Book, 15th cent.; ed. F. J. Furnivall (EETS., 1868).

Bacon, Francis; Essays, 1597, ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1871. Life of Henry VII, 1621, ed. J. R. Lumby, 1876.

Baldwyne, William; chief editor of the Mirrour for Magistrates, first issued in 1559.

Ballads. English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. from the Collection of F. J. Child by H. C. Sargent and G. L. Kittredge, 1904.

Barbour’s Bruce, 1375; ed. W. W. Skeat (EETS., 1870-7).

Barclay, Alexander; Ship of Fools, 1508, a translation of Sebastian Brandt’s Narrenschiff, c. 1494 (Navis Stultifera, 1488); ed. Jamieson, 1874.

Bardsley, Charles W.; English Surnames, 1875.

Baret, John; Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580.

Barnes, R.; Works, see Tyndale.

Barnfield, Richard; The Affectionate Shepherd, 1594; ed. J. O. Halliwell (Percy Soc., 1845).

Bartsch, K., et A. Horning; La Langue et la LittÉrature franÇaises depuis le ix^e siÈcle jusqu’au xiv^e siÈcle. Textes et Glossaire, 1887.

Beaumont and Fletcher; Works, ed. G. Darley, 1859; also, ed. W. Gifford with a Biographical Memoir (reprint, Routledge, 1860). [Francis Beaumont born 1586, died 1615.]

Berghaus, H.; Der Sprachschatz der Sassen, 1880-3.

Berners, Lord (John Bourchier); tr. of the Chronicles of Froissart (Pynson, 1523). [Born 1467, died 1533.]

Bibbesworth, Walter de; The Treatise, c. ann. 1325; printed in Wright’s Vocabularies (ed. 2, 1882). This is probably the correct spelling, not ‘Biblesworth’. See Wright, Thomas.

Bible, English. Authorised Version, 1611 (exact reprint. Clarendon Press, 1911).

Bible Word-Book; see Wright, W. A.

Blount, Thomas; Glossographia, a Dictionary of hard words, 1656; ed. 3, 1670.

Boke of St. Albans, printed in 1486; facsimile reprint, 1881. Contains a Book on Hawking, a Book on Hunting (by Dame Juliana Barnes), and a Book on Coat-Armour.

Bosworth and Toller (B. T.). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary begun by J. Bosworth, and completed by T. N. Toller, 1882-98.

Boyle, Roger (Earl of Orrery); Parthenissa, 1676; Guzman, c. 1679; Mr. Anthony, 1689.

Bozon, Nicole; Les Contes MoralisÉs, c. 1350; ed. L. Toulmin Smith and Paul Moyer, 1889.

Brand, John; Observations on Popular Antiquities, 1813; Arranged and revised by H. Ellis; reprint, 1887 (Chatto and Windus).

Brathwaite (or Braithwait), Richard; Barnabae Itinerarium (Drunken Barnaby’s Four Journeys), Latin and English, ed. 1, 1648; reprint, 1822.

Brewer, Antony; Dramatist, fl. 1655. [To him was formerly ascribed ‘Lingua, or the Combat of the Five Senses for Superiority, 1607’; see DNB.]

Brome, Alexander; Poet, Satirist, and Dramatist; Wks. ed. 1873. [Born 1620, died 1666.]

Browne, Sir Thomas; Works, ed. S. Wilkin. 1852 (Bohn’s Standard Library).

—— Religio Medici and Christian Morals, ed. by W. A. Greenhill; 1881. [Born 1640, died 1680.]

Browne, William; Britannia Pastorals, see English Poets. [Born 1590, died c. 1645.]

Brunne, Robert of; Handlyng Synne, c. 1303; ed. F. J. Furnivall (Roxburghe Club, 1862).

Bullokar, John; An English Expositor, by J. B., 1616; sixth ed., 1680.

Bunyan, John; Pilgrim’s Progress, First Part, 1678.

Burton, Robert; Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621.

Butler, Samuel; Poems, ed. R. Bell, 1855; Hudibras, ed. H. G. Bohn, 1871. [Born 1612, died 1680.]

Calisch, J. M.; Nederlandsch-Engelsch en Engelsch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek, 1875.

Campion, Thomas; poems printed first in 1595; ed. Bullen, 1889.

Cartwright, William; Preacher, Poet, Dramatist. [Born 1611, died 1643.]

Catholicon Anglicum, 1483; ed. Herrtage, EETS., 1881.

Caxton, William; The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, c. 1474; reprint by H. O. Sommer, 1894.

—— Game of the Chesse, printed in 1474; facsimile of the 2nd ed., V. Figgins, 1860.

—— see Reynard.

Chanson de Roland; Bodleian MS., c. 1180; ed. L. Gautier, 1881.

Chapman, George; Dramatic Works, ed. 1873. The Iliad of Homer, 1611; Odyssey, 1614; Chapman’s Homer, ed. R. Hooper, 1857; R. H. Shepherd, 1875.

Chaucer, Geoffrey; Complete Works; ed. W. W. Skeat, 1894. [Born 1328, died 1400.]

Child, F. J.; see Ballads.

Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon; ed. C. Plummer and J. Earle, 1892-9.

Cocke Lorell’s Bote, a humorous and sarcastic poem, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1515; ed. 1843.

Coles, Elisha; English Dictionary, 1677.

—— Dictionary, English-Latin and Latin-English, fourth ed. enlarged, 1699.

Congreve, William; Dramatic Works; see Wycherley. [Born 1670, died 1729.]

Cook, A. S.; Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers, 1898.

Cooper, T.; Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, 1565.

Cotgrave, Randle; A French and English Dictionary. First edition 1611. The edition of 1673 is the one usually cited.

Court of Love, a late poem first printed with Chaucer’s Works, 1561; reprinted in Chaucerian and Other Poems, ed. by W. W. Skeat, 1897.

Coverdale, Miles; Translator of the Bible; first printed in 1535.

Cowell, John; The Interpreter of Words and Terms, 1607; ed. 1637; also ed. augmented and improved, 1701.

Cursor Mundi, c. 1300; ed. R. Morris (EETS., 1874-92).

DÄhnert, J. C.; Platt-Deutsches WÖrterbuch, 1781.

Davenant, Sir William; Dramatist and Poet-Laureate, see English Poets. [Born 1605, died 1668.]

Davies, T. L. O.; A Supplementary English Glossary, 1881.

Dekker, Thomas; Dramatic Works; ed. by E. Rhys, 1873. [Born c. 1570, died c. 1637.]

Delesalle, Georges; Dictionnaire d’Argot FranÇais, 1896.

Destruction of Troy, c. 1390; ed. G. A. Panton and D. Donaldson (EETS. 1869 and 1874).

Dialoge Gregoire lo Pape, 12th cent.; ed. Foerster, 1876.

Dict.: Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by W. W. Skeat, ed. 4, 1910.

Dict. M. & S.: A Concise Dictionary of Middle English, by A. L. Mayhew and W. W. Skeat, 1888.

Dictionarium Rusticum Urbanicum et Botanicum, ed. 3, 1726.

Didot: Glossaire FranÇais de Ducange, dans l’Édition du Glossarium publiÉe par M. Ambroise Firmin Didot, 1887.

Digby, George, Earl of Bristol; Elvira, a Comedy. [Born 1612, died 1676.]

Dinneen, P. S.; An Irish-English Dictionary, 1904.

Dodsley, Robert; A Select Collection of Old English Plays, originally published 1780; ed. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1876.

Dozy, R.; Glossaire des Mots espagnols et portugais dÉrivÉs de l’Arabe; ed. W. H. Engelmann, Leyde, 1869.

Drant, Thomas; tr. of Horace, Satires, 1566.

Drayton, Michael; Poems; see English Poets. [Born 1563, died 1631.]

Drummond, William, of Hawthornden; Cypresse Grove, 1623.

Dryden, John; Poetical Works, ed. 1851. [Born 1631, died 1701.]

Ducange: Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, conditum a Carolo du Fresne, Domino Du Cange; ed. Henschel, 1883-7.

Dunbar, W.; Poems, ed. Small and Gregor (Scottish Text Soc., 1883-93). [floruit 1500.]

Earle, John; Micro-cosmographie, 1628; ed. Arber, 1868.

Earle, John; A Hand-book to the Land-Charters and other Saxonic Documents, 1888.

Echard, Laurence; tr. of Plautus, 1694.

EDD.: English Dialect Dictionary, with English Dialect Grammar, edited by Dr. Joseph Wright, 1905.

Eden, R.; The First Three English Books on America, 1511-55; ed. Arber, 1885.

Edwards, Richard; Damon and Pithias, 1564; in Dodsley’s Old English Plays.

Elyot, Sir Thomas; The Boke named The Governour, 1531; ed. H. H. S. Croft, 1883.

—— The Castel of Helthe, 1533 (ed. 1539).

English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, ed. A. Chalmers, 1810. 21 vols.

Estienne, Henri; La PrÉcellence du Langage FranÇois, 1579; ed. Huguet, 1896.

Etherege, Sir George; Dramatist. [Born 1635.]

Fabyan, Robert; Chronicles of England and France; ed. Henry Ellis, 1811. [Died 1512.]

Fairfax, Edward; Godfrey of Bulloigno or the Recoverie of Hierusalem, 1600, a translation of Tasso’s poem.

Fanfani, Pietro; Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana, 1898.

Farquhar, George; Dramatist; Works, ed. 1840. [Born 1678, died 1707.]

Ferrex and Porrex; see Gorboduc.

Field, Nathaniel; Dramatist [floruit 1610].

Fitzhorbert, John F.; Book of Husbandry, 1534; ed. W. W. Skeat (Eng. Dialect Soc., 1882).

Fletcher, John; Dramatist. [Born 1576, died 1625.] See Beaumont.

Florio, John; A Worlde of Wordes, Dictionarie in Italian and English, 1598.

—— Italian and English Dictionary, and English and Italian Dictionary, by G. Torriano, ed. 1688. This is the edition usually cited.

—— tr. of the Essays of Montaigne, 1603.

Ford, John; Plays; ed. W. Gifford, 1827. [Born 1586, died 1639.]

Foxe, John; Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs), 1563.

Franck, J.; Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 1892.

Fritzner, Johan; Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 1883.

Gamelyn, the Tale of; 14th cent.; ed. Skeat, 1893.

Gascoigne, George; Poet and Dramatist. Works, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1869. [Born c. 1536, died 1577.]

Genesis and Exodus, c. 1250; ed. R. Morris (EETS., 1865).

Geneva Bible (English), 1562.

Godefroy, F.; Dictionnaire de l’Ancienne Langue FranÇaise et de tous ses Dialectes du ix^e au xv^e siÈcle, 1881-1902.

Godwin, Francis, Bishop of Hereford; Man in the Moone, ed. 1638. [Born 1561, died 1633.]

Golding, Arthur, tr. of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 1567; ed. 1603.

Googe, Barnaby; The Zodiac of Life, 1560-5; The Popish Kingdome, 1570; Four Bokes of Husbandrie, tr. from Heresbach.

Gorbodue, The Tragedy of, by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, produced 1561, printed 1565; authorized ed. 1571, under the name of Ferrex and Porrex.

Gosson, Stephen; The School of Abuse, 1579; ed. Arber, 1868.

Gouldman, F.; A copious dictionary (Latin-English), founded on Holyoak, 1678.

Gower, John; Complete Works; ed. G. C. Macaulay, 1902. [Died 1402.]

Greene, Robert; The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Rob. Greene and Geo. Peele; ed. A. Dyce, 1883. [Born 1560, died 1592.]

Grieb-SchrÖer; Englisch-Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches WÖrterbuch, 1902.

Grimald, Nicholas; Poet; translator of ‘Tully’s Offices’. [Born c. 1519, died 1562.]

Grimm, Jacob; Teutonic Mythology; tr. by J. S. Stallybrass, 1880-8.

Grose, Francis; A Provincial Glossary with a Collection of Local Proverbs and Popular Superstitions, ed. 2, 1790.

Habington, William; Castara, 1640; ed. Arber.

Hall, Edward; Chronicle; printed by Grafton, 1548; ed. 1809. [Died 1547.]

Hall, Joseph, Bishop of Norwich; Satires in Six Books, 1598; ed. 1753.

Halliwell, J. O.; A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words; Fifth edition, 1865.

Hampole, Richard Rolle of; The Psalms of David, c. 1330; ed. H. R. Bramley, 1884.

Harington, Sir John; Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, 1591; in English Poets.

Harman, Thomas; A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursetors, vulgarly called Vagabones, 1566, ed. E. Viles and F. J. Furnivall (EETS., extra series, 1869).

Harrison, William; A Description of England, edited from the first two editions of Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1577, 1587, by F. J. Furnivall (New Shakspere Society, 1878).

Hatzfeld: Dictionnaire de la Langue FranÇaise, par MM. A. Hatzfeld, A. Darmesteter, et A. Thomas, 1890-6.

Hawes, Stephen; Passetyme of Pleasure, c. 1506; reprinted for the Percy Soc., 1846.

Hazlitt, W. Carew; Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, 1864-6.

—— see Dodsley.

Hearne, Thomas; Reliquiae Hearnianae (ed. P. Bliss, 1857). [Born 1678, died 1735.]

Hellowes, Edward; Familiar Epistles of Sir Anthonie of Guevara, 1574.

Herbert, George; The Temple, 1633; facsimile reprint, 1885.

Herbert, Sir Thomas; Travels, 1665; ed. 1677.

Hero and Leander, a paraphrase of the poem ascribed to Musaeus by Marlowe, completed by Chapman, 1598; see NED. (s.v. Imperance).

Herrick, Robert; Poetical Works; ed. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1869. [Born 1591, died 1674.]

Hexham, H.; A large Netherdutch and English Dictionarie, Rotterdam, 1648.

Heylin, Peter; Microcosmus, 1621.

Heywood, John; English Proverbs, 1546; ed. John S. Farmer, 1906.

Heywood, Thomas; Dramatic Works; ed. 1874. [Temp. Elizabeth-Charles I.]

Hoccleve (or Occleve), Thomas; De Regimine Principum, 14th cent.; ed. by T. Wright (Roxburghe Club, 1860).

Holinshed, Ralph; Chronicles. Reprint of first ed., 1577-87.

Holland, Philemon; tr. of Pliny’s Natural History, 1634.

Howell, James; Epistolae Ho-Elianae, Familiar Letters; ed. 5, 1678.

—— Instructions for Foreign Travel, 1642 (ed. Arber, 1868). [Born c. 1594, died 1666.]

Huloet, Richard; Abecedarium Anglo-Latinum, 1552.

Icelandic Dictionary: Cleasby and Vigfusson, Oxford, 1874.

Johnson, Samuel; Dictionary of the English Language, 1755.

Jonson, Ben; Works, ed. Gifford; reprint, 1860. [Born 1574, died 1637.]

Joyce, P. W.; English as we Speak it in Ireland, 1910.

Kilian, C.; Old Dutch Dictionary, 1777.

King Alisaunder; see Weber’s Metrical Romances.

King Horn, The Geste of, c. 1250; ed. Lumby (EETS., 1867).

Kluge, F.; Etymologisches WÖrterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, ed. 5, 1894.

Koolman, J.; WÖrterbuch der Ostfriesischen Sprache, 1884. [The dialect is not E. Frisian; it is a variety of Low German.]

Kyd, Thomas; Spanish Tragedy, 1592; ed. J. Schick, 1901.

La Curne de Sainte-Palaye; Dictionnaire historique de l’ancien langage franÇois, 10 vols., 1882.

Latimer, Hugh; Seven Sermons before Edward VI, 1549; ed. Arber, 1869. [Died Oct. 16, 1555.]

Levy, E.; Petit Dictionnaire ProvenÇal-FranÇais, 1909.

Lexer, Matthias; Mittelhoehdeutsches HandwÖrterbuch, 1872-8.

Lindisfarne Gospels, the Northumbrian version; see Anglo-Saxon Gospels.

LittrÉ, É.; Dictionnaire de la Langue FranÇaise, 1877.

Locrine, Tragedy of; authorship doubtful, perhaps by Thomas Kyd.

Lydgate, John; The Storie of Thebes, printed 1561.

—— Temple of Glas; ed. Dr. J. Schick (EETS., extra series, 1891). [Born c. 1370, died c. 1460.]

Lyly, John; Euphues, 1580; ed. Arber, 1868.

—— Dramatic Works; ed. F. W. Fairholt, 1856. [Born c. 1553, died 1606.]

Machin, Lewis; Play-writer. The Dumbe Knight, 1608 (in collaboration with Gervase Markham); see NED. (s.v. Mountcent).

Malory, Sir Thomas; Le Morte Arthur, 1485; printed by Caxton; exact reprint, ed. H. O. Sommer, 1889-91.

Manchester, Earl of (Sir Henry Montagu); Manchester Al Mondo, 1633; reprinted from the fourth impression (1638-9), Frowde, 1902.

Marlowe, Christopher; Works, ed. F. Cunningham, 1870; ed. C. F. Tucker Brooke, 1910. [Born 1564, died 1593.]

Marmion, Shakerley; Poet and Dramatist. [Born 1602, died 1639.]

Marston, John; Works; ed. J. O. Halliwell, 1856. His first work, Scourge of Villanie, printed in 1598.

Martin, E., and Lienhart, H.; WÖrterbuch der elsÄssischen Mundarten.

Marvell, Andrew; Poet, Satirist in prose and verse. [Born 1620, died 1678.]

Massinger, Philip; Plays; ed. F. Cunningham, 1868. [Born 1584, died 1640.]

Mayne, Jasper (Archdeacon); Play-writer, The City Match, printed 1639, and The Amorous War, printed 1648.

Merlin, a Prose Romance, c. 1440; ed. H. B. Wheatley (EETS., 1869); Pt. iv, ed. W. E. Mead (EETS., 1899).

Middleton, T.; Plays, ed. H. Ellis (Mermaid Series). [Born 1570, died 1627.]

Milton, John; Paradise Lost, 1665; Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, 1671. [Born 1608, died 1674.]

Minsheu, J.; The Guide into the Tongues, 1617; ed. 2, 1627.

—— A Dictionary in Spanish and English, 1623.

Mirrour for Magistrates, a collection of poems to which T. Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, contributed ‘The Induction’, and ‘The Complaint’, 1559-63; ed. Jos. Hazlewood, 1815. See Baldwyne; Sackville.

Moisy, Henri; Glossaire Anglo-Normand. Caen. 1895.

More, Sir T.; Works, printed in 1557. [Died 1535.]

—— Utopia, tr. by R. Robynson, 1551; ed. Arber, 1869; ed. Lumby, 1879.

—— Richard III; ed. Lumby, 1882.

Morte Arthur; see Malory.

Morte Arthure (an alliterative poem); c. 1440; ed. E. Brock (EETS., 1865.)

Munday, Anthony; Play-writer, ballad-writer, and pamphleteer; The Mirror of Mutabilitie, or Principal Part of the Mirrour of Magistrates: Selected out of the Sacred Scriptures.

Nabbes, Thomas; Dramatist; Microcosmus, 1637.

Napier, A. S.; Old English Glosses (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1900).

Nares, Robert; A Glossary to the Works of English Authors, particularly Shakespeare and his contemporaries, 1822; a new ed. by J. O. Halliwell and Thomas Wright, 1859, reprinted 1876. [Born 1753, died 1829.]

NED.; The New English Dictionary. Editors, Sir James Murray, Dr. Henry Bradley, and Dr. William Craigie. The Clarendon Press, Oxford.

North, Sir Thomas; Translation of Plutarch’s Lives, 1595.

—— Shakespeare’s Plutarch, being a Selection from North’s Plutarch, by W. W. Skeat, 1875.

Norton, Thomas; Collaborator with Thomas Sackville in writing the first English tragedy of Gorboduc, 1561; and of Sternhold and Hopkins, in a version of the Psalms, 1562. Translator of Calvin’s Institutes, 1561.

Notes on English Etymology, W. W. Skeat, 1901.

Occleve; see Hoccleve.

O’Curry, E.; Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, 3 vols., 1873.

Oldest English Texts; ed. H. Sweet (EETS., 1886).

Oldham, John; Poetical Works, ed. by Robert Bell, 1871. [Born 1653, died 1683.]

Oxford Records: Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford, 1509-83; ed. W. H. Turner, 1880.

Palsgrave, Jehan; Lesclaircissement de la Langue FranÇoyse, 1530; reprint, Paris, 1852.

Paston Letters, 1422-1509; ed. J. Gairdner, 1872-5.

Paul, H.; Deutsches WÖrterbuch, 1897.

Peele, George; Dramatic and Poetical Works; ed. A. Dyce, 1839. [Died 1597.]

Pepys, Samuel; Diary, 1659-69; ed. Lord Braybrooke.

Phaer, Thomas; The Nyne First Books of the Æneid of Virgil, 1562; the translation was finished by Twyne. [Born c. 1510, died 1560.]

Phillips, Edward; The New World of Words, or Universal English Dictionary, 1706.

Piers Plowman, 1362-1400; ed. W. W. Skeat, with Notes and Glossary, 1877-84.

Plantin, Christophe; Thesaurus Theutonicae Linguae, 1573.

Plowman’s Tale, The, c. 1400; printed in The Works of Jeffrey Chaucer, ed. Th. Speght, 1687; reprinted in Political Poems and Songs; see below.

Political Poems and Songs, ed. Thomas Wright (Rolls Series, 1859-61).

Pollard, A. W.; English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes, 1890.

Prompt.: Promptorium Parvulorun, c. 1440; ed. A. Way (Camden Soc., 1843-65); also, A. L. Mayhew (EETS., extra series, CII, 1908).

Proverbs. A Handbook of Proverbs, collected by H. G. Bohn, containing Ray’s Collection, with Large Additions, 1870.

Proverbs. Early English Proverbs, collected by W. W. Skeat, 1910.

Proverbs of Hendyng, 1272-1307; printed in Reliquiae Antiquae (ed. Wright and Halliwell), and in J. M. Kemble’s Appendix to ‘The Dialogues of Salomon and Saturn’ (Ælfric Society, 1848).

Psalter (Anglo-Norman), 12th cent.; ed. by F. Michel from a Bodleian MS., Oxford, 1850.

Psalter of the Great Bible, 1539; ed. John Earle, 1894.

Psalter, Old English; see Vespasian Psalter.

Puttenham, G.; The Arte of English Poesie, 1589; ed. Arber, 1869.

Quarles, Francis; Argalus and Parthenia, 1621; Emblems Divine and Moral, 1635.

Rabelais, Œuvres de, avec un Glossaire par M. Pierre Jannet, 1874.

Randolph, Thomas; Dramatist; The Muses’ Looking-Glass, 1638.

Ray, John; A Collection of English Proverbs, 1670; ed. 5, H. G. Bohn, 1870.

—— A Collection of English Words, 2nd ed. 1691; rearranged and edited by W. W. Skeat (EDS., 1874).

Return from Parnassus, The; Pt. i acted in Cambridge, 1601; ed. W. D. Macray, 1886; Pt. ii, acted 1602. The whole edited by Arber, 1870.

Reynard the Fox, translated and printed by William Caxton, 1481; ed. Arber, 1878.

Richard the Redeles, printed with the C text of Piers the Plowman; ed. W. W. Skeat, 1886.

Rietz, J. E.; Svenskt Dialekt-Lexicon, 1867.

Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle, c. 1298; ed. T. Hearne, 1724; reprinted, 1810; ed. W. Aldis Wright (Rolls Series, 1887).

Robynson, Raphe; tr. of More’s Utopia, 2nd ed. 1556; ed. J. R. Lumby, 1879; ed. Arber. See More, Sir T.

Rogers, Daniel; Divine Naaman the Syrian, 1642.

Roister Doister, see Udall.

Rollo, Richard, of Hampole; died 1349; see Hampole.

Romaunt of the Rose. A translation of the French Roman de la Rose; Part A by Chaucer; Part B in Northern (Lincoln) dialect; Part C of unknown origin; ed. Skeat (Student’s Chaucer).

RÖnsch, Hermann; Itala und Vulgata, 1875 (Die RÖmische Volkssprache).

Roquette, J. I.; Dictionnaire Portugais-FranÇais, Paris, 1855.

Rough List: of English Words found in Anglo-French, in Skeat’s Notes on English Etymology, 1901.

Rowley, William; Comedian and Playwright. A Search for Money; or the Lamentable Complaint for the Losse of the Wandering Knight, Monsieur l’Argent, 1609.

Sackville, Thomas, Lord Buckhurst [born 1536, died 1608]; see Gorboduc, Mirrour for Magistrates. Works ed. by R. W. Sackville-West, 1859.

SainÉan, L.; L’Argot ancien, 1907.

Sandys, George; A Relation of a Journey, 1610; ed. 3, 1632.

Schade, Oskar; Altdeutsches WÖrterbuch, 1872-82.

Schmid, Johann Christoph von; SchwÄbisches WÖrterbuch, 1844.

Schmidt, Alexander; Shakespeare-Lexicon, 1874-5.

Sewel, W.; Dictionary, English and Dutch, Dutch and English, 1727; ed. 5, 1754; augmented and improved by Egbert Buys, 1766.

Shadwell, Thomas; Dramatist, Poet Laureate. [Born 1640, died 1692.]

Shakespeare. The Globe Edition; ed. by W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright, 1864. References generally as in Schmidt’s Lexicon. His Dramas and Poems are referred to by the name of the Play or Poem alone.

Sherwood, Robert (‘Londoner’); A Dictionary. English and French, 1672 (serves as an English index to Cotgrave, ed. 1673).

Shirley, James; Dramatic Works; ed. A. Dyce, 1833. [Born c. 1594, died 1666.]

Sidney, Sir Philip; Arcadia, 1581, published 1590; Apology for Poetrie, 1595; ed. Arber, 1868.

Sin. Barth.: Sinonyma Bartholomei, ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1887).

Skelton, John; Poetical Works; ed. A. Dyce, 1843. [Born c. 1460, died 1529.]

Skinner, S.; Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae, 1671.

Spenser: The Complete Works of Edmund Spenser. The Globe edition, ed. by R. Morris. Shepherds’ Calendar [Shep. Kal.], 1579; Faery Queen [F. Q.], 1590-6.

Stanford: The Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases; ed. C. A. M. Fennell, 1892.

Stanyhurst, Richard; tr. of Aeneid, bks. i-iv, 1582; ed. Arber, 1880.

Stevens, John; Spanish and English Dictionary, 1706.

Stow, John; Survey of London, 1598; ed. Thoms, 1842.

Strutt, Joseph; The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1801; ed. W. Horne, 1834.

Stubbes, Philip; Anatomy of the Abuses in England, 1583; ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1877-9.

Student’s Pastime, A; Selections of Articles reprinted from ‘Notes and Queries’, by W. W. Skeat, 1896.

Surrey, Earl of (Henry Howard) [died 1547]. Poems; in Tottel’s Miscellany.

Sweet, Henry; The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, 1897.

Tarlton, Richard; Satirist; Tarlton’s Newes out of Purgatorie, publ. 1590. [Died 1588.]

Thersites, An Interlude, first performed in August, 1537; 1st ed. c. 1560; reprinted 1820, included in Hazlitt’s ed. of Dodsley’s Old English Plays; extracts printed in English Miracle Plays, ed. A. W. Pollard, 1890.

Thomas, Antoine; Essais de Philologie FranÇaise, 1897.

Tomkis (or Tomkys), Thomas; Plays in Hazlitt’s Dodsley. Albumazar, 1615.

Topsell, Edward; The History of four-footed Beasts and Serpents, 1608.

Tottel, Richard; Printer of Tottel’s Miscellany, a collection of verses, known in society, but never before published, by the Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and others, 1557; ed. Arber, 1870.

Tourneur, Cyril; Plays and Poems; ed. J. Churton Collins, 1878. [Born c. 1575, died 1626.]

Towneley Mysteries, c. 1450; printed for Surtees Soc., 1836; also ed. G. England and A. W. Pollard (EETS., extra series, 1897).

Trench, Richard C. (Archbishop); Select Glossary, ed. 7, 1890 (revised by A. L. Mayhew).

Trevisa, John of; Translation of Higden’s Polychronicon, 1387; ed. J. R. Lumby (Rolls Series, 1865-6).

Tuke, Sir Samuel; Dramatist. Adventures of Five Hours, 1663; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley.

Turbervile, George; see English Poets. —— Booke of Venerie [Hunting], 1575.

Tusser, Thomas; Five hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie; first ed. 1573; ed. Payne and Herrtage (EDS., 1878).

Twyne, Thomas; Completion of Phaer’s translation of the Aeneid, 1573.

Tyndale, William; The Whole Workes of W. Tyndale, John Frith, and Doctor Barnes, printed by John Daye, 1572. Tyndale’s Translation of the New Testament into English was first printed in 1525.

Udall, Nicholas; Roister Doister, c. 1553; ed. Arber, 1869. Translation of the Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 1532.

Vanbrugh, Sir John; Dramatic Works; see Wycherley. [Born 1666, died 1726.]

Vespasian Psalter, the OE. (Mercian) interlinear version, printed in ‘Oldest English Texts’ (q.v.).

Voc.: Wright’s Old English Vocabularies; ed. WÜlcker, 1884; see also Wright, Thomas.

Warner, William; Albion’s England, 1586; see English Poets.

Weber’s Metrical Romances, 1810. Vol. 1 contains King Alisaunder, c. 1310.

Webster, John; Works; ed. A. Dyce; new ed. 1857. [Born 1607, died 1661.]

Weigand, Friedrich; Deutsches WÖrterbuch; ed. 3, 1878.

Westward Ho, a play by Dekker and Webster, 1607.

Wever, R.; An Enterlude called Lusty Juventus, 1550.

Wilkins, George; Miseries of Inforst Marriage, 1607; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 533.

William of Palerne, The Romance of, c. 1350; ed. W. W. Skeat (EETS., 1867).

Withals, John; A Short Dictionarie for yonge beginners, 1556.

Worlidge, J.; Dictionarium Rusticum, 1681.

Wright, Thomas; A Volume of Vocabularies, 1857; ed. 2, privately printed, 1882.

Wright, William Aldis; The Bible Word-Book, 2nd ed., 1884.

Wyatt, Sir Thomas; Poetical Works; ed. R. Bell, 1854. [Born 1503, died 1542.]

Wycherley, William; Dramatic Works; ed. 1840, with those of Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. [Born c. 1640, died 1715.]

Wyclif, John; The Holy Bible, 1382-8; ed. Forshall and Madden, 1850.

—— New Testament, with Glossary; ed. W. W. Skeat.

—— Job, Psalms, &c., with Glossary; ed. W. W. Skeat.

Wynkyn de Worde (Jan van Wynkyn), native of Worth in Alsace. Printer. Came to England with Caxton from Bruges 1476, died c. 1534.

York Plays, c. 1430; ed. Miss L. Toulmin Smith, 1885.

berry. In the Malone Society’s Reprint, 1. 1432, of Quarto 1599, the text is:

‘A berrie of faire Rooes I saw to day

Down by the groves, and there I’ll take my stand,

And shoot at one.’

Probably the correct reading would be ‘a bevie of faire Rooes’ (i.e. a number of fair roe-deer). But see NED. (s.v. Berry, sb.³), where the word is used as the special name for a company of rabbits.

bulk, the trunk, body of a person; cp. Richard III, i. 4. 40, ‘The envious flood Stopt in my soul . . . smother’d it within my panting bulk.’

Burgullian. Perhaps a contemptuous form of Burgundian (or Burgonian), a native of Burgundy, with reference to John Larrosse, ‘a Burgonian by nation and a fencer by profession’, who challenged all comers in 1598.

forslow. For Macilense read Macilente.

Napier’s bones, invented by John Napier, eighth laird of Merchiston [not Lord Napier].

skibbered. The reading of the Bodleian MS. skybredd shows that the meaning of the word is sky-bred.

sothery. The play referred to is The Four P’s.

spargirica. B. Jonson’s spelling spagyrica may be defended from French usage; cp. Dict. de l’Acad., 1672: ‘Spagyrique ou Spagirique. Il se dit de la Chimie qui s’occupe de l’analyse des mÉtaux, et de la recherche de la pierre philosophale. C’est la mÊme chose que la Chimie mÉtallurgique ou la MÉtallurgie’. The word spagyrique in the phrase ‘un philosophe spagyrique’ occurs frequently in Anatole France’s ‘La RÔtisserie de la Reine PÉdauque’.

strummel. Strummel-patch’d (so Gifford). The 1616 Folio reads ‘whoreson strummel, patch’t, goggle-ey’d Grumbledories’.

trash. For Othello, ii. 1. 132, read ii. 1. 312; and see Schmidt’s note on the word.

turm. Milton, P. R. iv. 66.

warden. Dele or (from the arms of Warden Abbey).

A

aband, to abandon. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 65; Mirror for Magistrates, Albanact, st. 20.

abatures, the traces left by a stag in the underwood through which he has passed. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 26, p. 68. F. abatture, a throwing down. See NED.

abeare, reflex., to demean oneself. Only in Spenser in this sense, F. Q. v. 12. 19; vi. 9. 45.

abiliments, ‘abiliments of war’, warlike accoutrements, things which made ‘able’ for war. More, Richard III (ed. 1641, 414). OF. (h)abillement, ‘tout ce qui est propre À quelque chose, machines de guerre’ (Didot).

able, to warrant, vouch for. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 2 (Lollio); King Lear, iv. 6. 173.

ablesse, ability. Only in Chapman, Iliad, v. 248.

abode, to forebode, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 93. An announcement, Chapman, Iliad, xiii. 146, 226. Cp. OE. ābēodan, to announce (pp. āboden).

abodement, a foreboding, presage, omen. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 13.

abord, used by Spenser for abroad, adrift. Ruins of Rome, xiv; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 324.

aborde, to approach. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 99, back, l. 8; lf. 103. 6; ‘I aborde, as one shyppe dothe an-other’, Palsgrave. F. aborder, to come to the side of; from À, to, bord, side.

abraid, abray, in Spenser, to start out of sleep, a swoon, to awake; ‘I did out of sleepe abray’, F. Q. iv. 6. 36; ‘Sir Satyrane abraid Out of the swowne’, F. Q. iv. 4. 22; to arouse, startle, ‘For feare lest her unwares she should abrayd’, F. Q. iii. 1. 61; ‘The brave maid would not for courtesie, Out of his quiet slumber him abrade’, F. Q. iii. 11. 8. ME. abreyde, to start up, start from sleep, awake (Chaucer); OE. ābregdan.

abraid, to upbraid. Greene, Alphonsus, ii (Belinus), ed. Dyce, 231; ‘I abrayde one, I caste one in the tethe’, Palsgrave. A n. Yorks. form (EDD.).

Abram-colour’d, auburn. Said of a beard. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 2 (Curvetto); Coriolanus, ii. 3. 21. See Nares.

Abram-man, Abraham-man, a sham patriarch, a begging vagabond. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 5; Massinger, New Way, ii. 1 (Marrall); ‘An Abraham-man is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, . . . and nameth himselfe poor Tom’, Awdeley, Fraternity of Vagabonds, p. 3.

abron, auburn. ‘Curled head With abron locks was fairly furnished’, Hall, Satires, v. 8. A Shropsh. pronunciation (EDD.). OF. auborne, Med. L. alburnus, ‘subalbus’ (Ducange).

abrook, to brook, endure. 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 10.

abrupt, separated, parted asunder. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 2 (Maria); as subst., an abrupt place, a precipice over an abyss, Milton, P. L. ii. 409.

absey-book, a spelling-book, primer. King John, i. 1. 196. For A-B-C book.

aby, to pay the penalty for. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 175; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 33. ME. abye, to pay for (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393); OE. ābycgan.

acates, provisions that are purchased. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Sad Shepherd, i. 3. 19. Norm. F. acat, purchase (Moisy).

accent, misused with the sense of ‘scent’. ‘The vines with blossoms do abound, which yield a sweet accÉnt’, Drayton, Harmonie of the Church; Sol. Song, ch. ii. l. 28.

access, an attack of illness. Also spelt axes, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 315; accesses, pl., Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 822. Access is used in Kent and Sussex for an ague-fit (EDD.). F. accÈs, cp. ‘un accÈs de fiÈvre’.

accite, to summon. 2 Hen. IV, v. 2. 141; Titus Andron. i. 1. 27; Chapman, tr. Iliad, ii. 376, has ‘summon’ (his first version had accite); pt. t. accited, id. xi. 595; accite, imp., Heywood, Dialogue iv; vol. vi. p. 163. L. accitare, to summon.

accite, to excite. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Underwoods (ed. 1692, p. 563).

accloye, to stop up, choke (with weeds). Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 15; ‘accloyed, as a Horse, Accloy’d or Cloyed, i.e. nail’d or prickt in the shooing’, Phillips, Dict. 1706. F. encloyer, ‘to cloy, choak, or stop up’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. inclavare, to lame a horse with a nail while shoeing (Ducange); L. clavus, a nail.

accomplement, accomplishment. Shaks. (?), Edw. III, iv. 6. 66. See NED.

accourt, to entertain courteously. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 16.

accoy, to daunt, tame, soothe. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 48; F. Q. iv. 8. 59. OF. acoier, to quiet; deriv. of coi, quiet; cp. Med. L. acquietare (adquietare), ‘quietum reddere’ (Ducange).

accoyl, to assemble, gather together. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30. OF. acoillir, to assemble; Med. L. accolligere (Ducange).

accumber, acomber, to encumber, oppress. ‘That my sowle be not acombred’, Reynard the Fox (ed. Arber, p. 34). Anglo-F. encumbrer, ‘accabler’ (Ch. Rol. 15).

achates, provisions, purchased as required. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 31. See acates.

acknown, pp. acknowledged. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 229; to be acknown on, to confess knowledge of, Othello, iii. 3. 320; to be acknowen of, to acknowledge, Puttenham, English Poesie, iii. 22 (p. 260). OE. oncnāwen, pp. of oncnāwan, to acknowledge.

a-cop, on high; sticking up. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Drugger). OE. copp, top, summit.

acopus, a restorative plant, mentioned by Pliny. Middleton, The Witch, v. 2 (Hecate). L. acopus, Gk. ἄκοπος; ἀ, not + κόπος, weariness.

acquest, an acquisition, gain. Bacon, Hist. Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, pp. 90, 172). OF. aquest, Med. L. acquistum (Ducange), L. acquisitum, a thing acquired.

acquist, Milton, Samson Ag. 1755. Directly from the Latin, or from the Ital. acquisto.

acroche, to grasp, try to acquire. ‘I acroche, as a man dothe that wynneth goodes or landes off another by sleyght, Iaccroche’, Palsgrave.

acton; see haqueton.

actuate, to act. Massinger, Roman Actor, iv. 2 (Paris). Med. L. actuare, ‘perficere’ (Ducange).

aculeate, pointed. Bacon, Essay 57, § 5. L. aculeus, a sting, sharp point. L. acus, a needle.

adamant, a load-stone, magnet. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 195; Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5 (Arundel). ME. adamaunt, the loadstone or magnet (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1182).

Adamite, a member of a sect that dispensed with clothes at their meetings. Shirley, Hyde Park, ii. 4 (Mis. Car.). Cp. The Guardian, no. 134 (Aug. 14, 1713), § last.

adaunt, to quell, subdue. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8. 11; leaf 79, back, l. 5. OF. adonter, donter, L. domitare, to tame (Virgil).

adauntreley, error for ad[u]aunt-relay, lit. a relay in front; a laying on of fresh hounds to take up a chase. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). From aduaunt (avaunt) and relay; see Avant-lay in NED.

adaw, to daunt, suppress, confound. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 13; iv. 6. 26; v. 9. 35; Shep. Kal., Feb., 141. A word due to the ME. adv. adawe, in phr. do adawe, to put out of life (lit. day), to quell. The ME. adawe = OE. of dagum, out of days.

addulce, to sweeten, render palatable. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 84).

adelantado, a Spanish grandee, a lord-lieutenant. Spelt adalantado; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Puntarvolo); Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face); Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Lazarillo). Span. adelantado, promoted, advanced, pp. of adelantar, to advance. See lantedo.

adjection, addition. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 6. 5. L. adjectio.

adjouste, to add, give; lit. to adjust. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 43. 2; lf. 141, back, 24.

adminiculation, aid, help, support. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § last; c. 8, § 6; c. 13, § 4. Med. L. adminiculatio, ‘auxilium’, adminiculus, ‘minister’ (Ducange).

admire, to wonder. Milton, P. L. ii. 677; Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 167.

adore. A form of adorn in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 46.

adoubted, afraid. Morte Arthur, leaf 241. 2; bk. x, c. 12 (end).

adowbe, to adub, to equip, array. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 32. 28; lf. 222. 15. Also adubbe, to dub a knight, id. 312. 31. Anglo-F. aduber, ‘armer’ (Ch. Rol.), also adubber.

adrad, pp. dreaded. Greene, A Maiden’s Dream, st. 4; frightened; Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 304. ME. adrad, afraid (Chaucer, C. T. A. 605); OE. ofdrǣd, frightened.

adrop (Ádrop), a term in alchemy; either the lead out of which the mercury was to be extracted to make ‘the philosopher’s stone’, or the stone itself. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surface).

adust, parched, burnt up. Bacon, Essay 36; Milton, P. L. xii. 635. Also adusted, P. L. vi. 514. L. adustus, burnt up, pp. of adurere.

advaile, ‘avail’, advantage, profit. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 9, § 6.

advant-garde, vanguard. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 35; bk. i, c. 15. F. avant-garde (Cotgr.) See Dict. (s.v. Van).

advaunt, reflex., to boast, brag, ‘vaunt’. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4 (end); bk. i, c. 15, § 3.

advision, vision. Morte Arthur, leaf 14. 15; Table of Contents, xiv. 7. ME. avisioun (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 7).

advoutresse, an adulteress. Roister Doister, v. 3. 9. Bacon, Essay 19, § 6. ME. avoutresse (Wyclif, Rom. vii. 3); OF. avoutresse.

adyt, addit, a recess or sanctuary of a temple. Greene, A Looking-glass, iv. 3 (1543); p. 137, col. 1. L. adytum, Gk. ἄδυτον, not to be entered, sacred; from ἀ, not, δύειν, to enter.

aerie (in Shakespeare), the brood of a bird of prey, and particularly of hawks, King John, v. 2. 149; Rich. III, i. 3. 264; ‘aerie of children’ (with reference to the young choristers of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul’s, who took part in plays), Hamlet ii. 2. 354. The word represents an OF. airiÉe, pp. of aairier, adairier, Romanic type adareare, der. of Med. L. area, ‘accipitrum nidus’ (Ducange).

aeromancy, divination by the air. Greene, Bacon and Friar Bungay, i. 2 (188); scene 2. 17 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D.).

aesture, surge, raging of the sea. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 111. Deriv. of L. aestus, the heaving motion of the sea.

afeard, afraid. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 28; affered, Dryden, Cock and Fox, 136. In gen. prov. use throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England (EDD.). ME. afered (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 482, OE. āfǣred, frightened, pp. of āfǣran.

affamed of, famished by, starved by. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 248, back, 2. F. affamÉ, famished, starved (Cotgr.).

affect, to love, be fond of. Two Gent. iii. 1. 82; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 2. L. affectare, to strive after a thing passionately.

affect, affection, passion. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 45; vi. 5. 24; Hymn in Honour of Love, 180. L. affectus, passion, desire.

affectionate, to feel affection for. Greene, Bacon and Friar Bungay, iii. 3; scene 10. 78 (W.); p. 171, col. 1 (D.).

affrap, to strike sharply. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 26; iii. 2. 6. Ital. affrappare, to beat (Florio).

affret, onset, fierce encounter. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 16; iv. 3. 16. Cp. Ital. affrettare, to hasten, make speed (Florio).

affront, to meet face to face, to encounter. Hamlet, iii. 1. 31; Ford, Perkin Warbeck, v. 1 (Dalyell). Affront, an accost, meeting. Greene, Tu Quoque, or The City Gallant; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 265. F. affronter, ‘to come before, or face to face’ (Cotgr.).

affy, to betroth, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 80; to affy in, to trust in, Titus Andron. i. 1. 47. Anglo-F. afier, ‘affirmer, assurer; mettre sa confiance en, se fier À’ (Moisy). Med. L. affidare, ‘fidem dare’ (Ducange).

afterclap, an unexpected consequence, generally unpleasant. Latimer, Serm. I, 27; after-claps, pl., Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 4; Tusser, Husbandry, § 49; Taylor, Life of Old Parr (EDD.). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

agate, on the way. ‘Let him agate’; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 6 (Phantastes); ‘Let us be agate, let us start’; Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 25. In prov. use in the north country, and in various other parts of England (EDD.).

agazed, astounded, amazed. Surrey, Description of Restless State, 44 in Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 4); agaz’d on, 1 Hen. VI, i. 1. 126. Prob. a variant of ME. agast (Wyclif), E. aghast.

agerdows, compounded of sour and sweet. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1250. F. aigre-doux, sour-sweet. L. acer and dulcis.

aggrace, to shew grace and favour. Pt. t. agraste; Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 18. Hence aggrace, sb. favour; id. ii. 8. 56. Ital. aggraziare, to confer a favour; agratiare, to favour (Florio). Med. L. aggratiare (Ducange).

aggrate, to please, delight, charm. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 50; v. 11. 19; vi. 10. 33. Ital. aggratare, ‘to sute’ (Florio).

aglet, the metal end or tag of a lace. ‘He made hys pen of the aglet of a poynte that he plucked from hys hose’, Latimer, Serm. (ed. 1869, p. 117); a metallic stud or spangle. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 5; ‘Tremolante, aglets or spangles’ (Florio). In Cumberland the metal end of a bootlace is called an aglet (EDD.). ME. aglet, to lace wyth alle (Prompt. Harl. MS.). F. aiguillette, a point (Cotgr.).

agloute, to feed to satisfaction, to glut. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 187, back, 14; lf. 41, back, 5. ME. aglotye (P. Plowman, C. x. 76). See NED. (s.v. Aglut).

agnize, to recognize, acknowledge. Othello, i. 3. 232; agnise, Udall, Erasmus Apophth. (ed. 1877, 271). Formed on the analogy of recognize, cp. L. agnoscere, to acknowledge.

a-good, in good earnest, heartily. Two Gent. of Verona, iv. 3; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 4 (near the end); Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2 (Ithamar). See Nares.

agreve, to aggravate, make more grievous. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 6 (end); Sir T. More, Rich. III (ed. Lumby, p. 68, l. 13). ME. agrevyn, ‘aggravare’ (Prompt. EETS. 200). Anglo-F. agrever (Moisy).

agrim, agrum, a common 16th-cent. form of ‘algorism’, a name for the Arabic or decimal system of numeration, hence arithmetic; ‘I reken, I counte by cyfers of agrym’, Palsgrave; ‘As a Cypher in Agrime’, Foxe, A. & M. iii. 265 (NED.); ‘A poor cypher in agrum’, Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 379, col. 1). ME. awgrym: ‘As siphre . . . in awgrym that noteth a place and no thing availith’ (Richard Redeles. iv. 53); algorisme (Gower, C. A. vii. 155). OF. augorisme, Med. L. algorismus, ‘numerandi ars’ (Ducange), cp. Span. alguarismo (guarismo), arithmetic (Stevens), from al-KhowÂrezmi, the surname of a famous Arab mathematician who lived in the 9th cent. See Dozy, Glossaire, 131.

agrise, agryse, to terrify, horrify. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 46; iii. 2. 24; agrysed, afraid, W. Browne, Shepherd’s Pipe, i. 501. OE. agrīsan, to shudder.

agrum; see agrim.

aguise, aguize, to dress, array, deck. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 21. 31; ii. 6. 7. Cp. guize, fashion, appearance, ii. 2. 14; ii. 6. 25; ii. 12. 21.

aim, in phr. to cry aim, to encourage an archer by crying out aim! King John, ii. 1. 196; to give aim, to direct; see Webster, Vittoria (ed. Dyce, p. 20). The giver of aim stood near the butts, and reported the success of the shot. Hence aim-giving, Ascham, Toxophilus, 160.

A-la-mi-re, a name given to the octave of A-re; the latter being the second lowest note in the scale, which was denoted by the letter A, and sung to the syllable re. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Crotchet); Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 107. N.B. Wrongly defined in the NED.; but the right definition, with a full explanation, is given in NED. under the heading A-re. The octave of A was, in fact, sung to the syllable la when occurring in the second hexachord, which began with C; to mi, in the third hexachord, which began with F; and to re, in the fourth, which began with the octave of G.

alate, of late, lately. King Lear, i. 4. 208; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 3. Still in use in Yorks. and Lancashire (EDD.). ME. a-late (Dest. Troy, 4176).

albricias, a reward for good news. Tuke, Adventures of Five Hours, v. 1 (Pedro); Digby, Elvira, ii. 1. 1. Span. albricias, reward for newes (Minsheu). Arab. al bishÂra, joyful tidings, cp. Port. alviÇaras. See Dozy, Glossaire, 74.

alcatote, a simpleton, a foolish fellow. Ford, Fancies Chaste, iv. 1 (Spadone). Cp. the Devon word alkitotle (EDD.).

alcatras, a name given by English voyagers to the Frigate Bird, Tachypetes aquilus, Drayton, The Owl, 549. Port. alcatrÁz, ‘mauve, goÉland: oiseau de mer; pÉlican du Chili, cormoran, calao des Moluques; alcatrÁz les Antilhas, onocrotale, grand gosier, oiseau de marais’ (Roquette).

alchemy, a metallic composition imitating gold; spelt alcumy, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); applied to a trumpet of such metal or of brass, ‘Put to their mouths the sounding alchymie’, Milton, P. L. ii. 517.

Alchoroden, or Alchochoden, the planet which rules in the principal parts of an astrological figure, at the nativity of any one, and which regulates the number of years he has to live. Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 1 (Norbret). So explained in a note. Spelt alchochoden, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter). From Pers. Kat-khudā, lord of the ascendant (Richardson). See almuten.

alcumise, alchemize, to change by help of alchemy, to transmute metals. Heywood, Love’s Mistress, i. 1 (Midas).

alcumyn, a kind of brass. Skelton, Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 904. For alchem-ine; see alchemy.

alder, of all; your alder speed, the help of you all; Everyman, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 135. ME. alder (Chaucer). OE. ealra, gen. pl. of eall, all.

alderliefest, dearest of all, 2 Hen. VI, i. 1. 28; ‘the alderliefest swain of all’, Greene, Descript. Shepherd, 42 (ed. Dyce, p. 304). ME. alderleuest (Chaucer, Tr. & Cr. iii. 239).

ale, an ale-house. Two Gent. ii. 5. 61; at the ale, Greene, A Looking-glass, iv. 4 (1616); p. 138, col. 1. Cp. ME. atten ale, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, B. vi. 117).

ale-bottle, a wooden ale-keg. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 4 (Firk).

alecie, drunkenness; a humorous formation from ale, with -cie added, as in luna-cie (lunacy). ‘Lunasie or alecie’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, iv. 2 (Riscio).

Ale-conner, an officer appointed to look to the assize and goodness of bread and ale. Middleton, Mayor of Queenb., iii. 3 (Oliver). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Ale, 3).

alegge, to allay. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 5. ME. alleggyn or softyn peyn, ‘allevio, mitigo’ (Prompt. EETS. 21).

alembic, an alchemist’s still; sometimes, the head of the still. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); spelt lembic, iii. 2. 4.

ale-stake, a stake or pole projecting from an ale-house, to bear a bush, garland, or other sign. Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 191.

alew, halloo, outcry. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 13.

alferez, an ensign, standard-bearer. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, i. 1. 12; alfarez, B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1 (Tipto). Span. alfÉrez. Arab. al-fÂris, a horseman, from faras, a horse.

alfridaria, used of the power which a planet has (each for seven years) over a man’s life. Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 5. From Arab. root faraḍa, to define, decree, appoint a time for a thing; with suffix -aria.

alga, seaweed. Dryden, AstrÆa Redux, 119. L. alga.

algate(s, always, continually. Stanyhurst, Aeneid, 1 (ed. 1880, 20); altogether, ‘Una now he algates must forgoe’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 2; nevertheless, notwithstanding, Shep. Kal., Nov., 21. Algates is a north country word, meaning ‘in every way, by all means’ (EDD.). ME. algates, notwithstanding (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2222); allegate, in every way (Ancren Riwle). See NED.

alguazier, algazier, an ‘alguazil’, warrant-officer, serjeant. Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (heading); Love’s Cure, ii. 1. Span. alguazir (alguazil); Port. al-vasil, al-vazir; Arab. al-wazÎr, ‘the minister’, officer, ‘vizier’, from root wazara, to carry.

alicant, alligant, wine from Alicante in Spain. Fletcher, The Chances, i. 8. 10; Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2 (Clown); aligant, A Match at Midnight, v. 1 (Sim.).

a’ life, as my life, extremely. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 3 (1 Creditor); The Widow, i. 1 (Martino); iv. 1 (2 Suitor).

alkedavy, the palace of a cadi or alcalde. Heywood, The Fair Maid, iv. 3 (Mullisheg); v. 1 (Mullisheg). From Arab. alqÂḍawÎ, the (palace) of the cadi.

allay, alloy. Bacon, Essay 1, § 2; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 320. ME. alay, inferior metal combined with one of greater value (P. Plowman, B. xv. 342). Norm. F. aley, alay, from aleier, to combine. L. alligare.

allect, to allure, entice. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 13; Sir T. More, Works (1557), p. 275, col. 1. Med. L. allectare (Ducange).

allegge, to alleviate. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 15. See alegge.

alleggeaunce, alleviation. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 42. OF. alegeance, deriv. of alegier, to alleviate. L. alleviare, to lighten.

all-hid, the game of hide and seek. Love’s Lab. L., iv. 3. 78; cf. Hamlet, iv. 2. 32; Two Angry Women, iv. 1. 27; Tourneur, Rev. Trag., iii. 5. 82.

All-holland-tide; see Hollandtide.

alligarta, alligator. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo); aligarta, Romeo and J., v. 1. 43 (1st Q.). Span. el lagarto, the lizard.

alloune, aloune, let us go. Anglicized form of F. allons. Marston, What You Will, ii. 1 (Laverdure).

all-to-bepowdered, powdered all over. Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Mrs. Amlet).

all-to ruffled, ruffled extremely. Milton, Comus, 380. The incorrect compound all-to came into use about 1500, in place of the older idiom which would have given the form all to-ruffled, with the to- linked to the verb. Here all, adv., meant ‘extremely’, and merely emphasized the prefix to-. Spelt all to ruffl’d (1645).

almacanter, almucantury, a small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon, representing a parallel of altitude. Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (la Fiske). Cp. Chaucer, Astrolabe, pt. ii, § 5. Spelt almacantara, B. Jonson, Staple of News. ii. 1 (P. senior). Arab. al-muqanṭarÂt, pl., bridges, arcs, almucanters. See Dozy, 164.

Almain, a German. Othello, ii. 3. 87; a kind of dance, Peele, Arraign. of Paris, ii. 2, 28; hence Almain-leap, B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, i. 1 (Satan); the Almond leape, Cotgrave (s.v. Saut). OF. aleman, German (mod. allemand).

almery, an aumbry, a cupboard. Morte Arthur, leaf 362, back, 24; bk. xvii. c. 23; ambry, Stanyhurst’s Aeneid, bk. ii (ed. Arber. p. 44. 2). For various prov. forms of this word see EDD. (s.v. Ambry). ME. almery, of mete kepyng, ‘cibutum’ (Prompt. EETS. 10). Norm. F. almarie (Moisy), Med. L. armarium (Prompt. 395), deriv. of L. arma, gear, tools.

almuten, the prevailing or ruling planet in a nativity. ‘Almuten lord of the geniture,’ Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret and Rusee); ‘And Mars Almuthen, or lord of the horoscope’, Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); ‘Almuten Alchochoden’, Tomkis, Albumazar ii. 5 (end). Error for almutaz (NED.); from Arab. al, the, and muʿtaz, prevailing, from ʿazz, to be powerful.

alonely, solely. Kyd, Cornelia, iv. 3. 160; all alonely, Barnes, Works, p. 226, col. 2; alonely, id. p. 227, col. 2. From all and only.

alow, below, low down. Dryden, Cymon, 370. ‘Ship, by bearing sayl alowe, withstandeth stormes’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 2. In use in Scotland (EDD.). ME. alowe: ‘Why somme (briddes) be alowe and somme alofte’ (P. Plowman, B. xii. 222).

aloyse! interj., look! see! see now! ‘Aloyse! aloyse, how pretie it is, is not here a good face?’ Damon and Pithias; in Hazlitt, iv. 79; Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 91.

alphin, alphyn, a bishop, in the game of chess. Caxton, Game of the Chesse, bk. ii. ch. 3. § 1. OF. alfin, Span. al-fil; from Arab. al-fÎl, ‘the elephant’. Pers. pÎl, elephant; see Dozy, Glossaire, 113, 114.

als, also. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 18; ii. 1. 7. 40; iv. 7. 35. As als, as also; id. iv. 4. 2. Als is short for also, and as is short for als; hence as als = also also.

alther, of all. Alther fyrste, first of all; Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 303. 2. See alder.

altitonant, thundering from on high. Middleton, World Tost at Tennis (Pallas). L. altitonans, with reference to Jupiter.

altitudes, in the altitudes, in a lofty mood, full of airs. Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo); in his altitudes, Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Brass).

alture, altitude; said of the sun. Surrey, tr. of Psalm lv., l. 29. Ital. altura, height; alto, high. L. altus, high.

aludel, an alchemist’s pot, used for sublimation. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). F. aludel, OF. alutel. Arab. al-uthāl, the utensil. See NED.

alvarado, the rousing of soldiers at dawn of day by the beating of the drum or the firing of a gun; ‘so that the very alverado given sounds the least hope of conquest’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon (Works, iii. 255); O. Fortunatus, ii. 1 (Soldan). Port. alvorada, ‘aube, la pointe du jour; (Mil.). Diane, battement de tambour, coup de canon À la pointe du jour pour Éveiller les soldats’; alvÓr, ‘la premiÈre pointe du jour’ (Roquette).

amate, to dismay, daunt, confound. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 45; ii. 1. 6 and 2. 5; Greene, Orl. Fur. ii. 1 (488); ‘Matter, to quell, mate, amate’, Cotgrave. Norm. F. amatir, ‘soumettre par la frayeur, terrifier’ (Moisy). See Nares.

amazza, (perhaps) slaughter. Pl. amazza’s; Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler). From Ital. ammazzare, to slay (Florio).

amber, to perfume with ambergris. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 2 (Zabulon). The sb. is spelt ambre in B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer).

ambidexter, one who acts with either party, a double-dealer. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Dryfat); Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503. Med. L. ambidexter, ‘judex qui ab utraque parte dona accipit’ (Ducange).

Ambree, Mary, an English heroine, who fought at the siege of Ghent in 1584. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Turfe).

amell, to enamel. Pp. amell’d; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 123. ‘I ammell as a goldesmyth dothe his worke, Jesmaille’, Palsgrave. ME. amelen, to enamel (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1080). Anglo-F. aymeler (Rough List). See aumayld.

amenage, to domesticate, make quite tame. Only in Spenser, F. Q. ii, 4. 11. OF. amenagier, amesnagier, to receive into a house. Deriv. of mesnage, a household, whence E. menagerie.

amenaunce, conduct, behaviour, mien. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 17; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 781. Deriv. of F. amener, to lead, conduct.

ames-ace, double aces, the lowest throw with dice. All’s Well, ii. 3. 85; used as a term of contempt, ambs-ace, Beaumont and Fl., Queen of Corinth, iv. 1 (Page). ME. ambes as (Chaucer, C. T. B. 124). Norm. F. ambes as, ‘deux as, mauvaise chance’ (Moisy). See aums-ace.

amiss, a fault, misdeed, misfortune. Hamlet, iv. 5. 18; Sonnet xxxv. 7; cli. 3; Heywood, Pt. 2, King Edward IV (Works, i. 119).

amite, aunt. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 88, back, 13. L. amita, father’s sister.

ammiral, admiral. Milton, P. L. i. 294. OF. amiral; Port. amiralh.

amomus, amomum, an odoriferous plant. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 13 (from end). L. amomum; Gk. ἄμωμον. See NED.

amoneste, to admonish. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216. 1; lf. 327. 17. Anglo-F. amonester (Rough List).

amoret, a love-glance, a loving look. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1264); scene 9. 177 (W.); p. 168, col. 2; also iv. 2 (1668); scene 12. 8 (W.); p. 173, col. 2. F. amourette, a love-trick (Cotgr.).

amort, in phr. all amort, spiritless, dejected. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1; Taming Shrew, iv. 3. 36; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 124. The phr. is due to F. À la mort, to the death. See NED.

amortise, to alienate in mortmain, to convey (property) to a corporation. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 71. Anglo-F. amortir (see Rough List). Med. L. admortire, ‘concedere in manum mortuam’ (Ducange).

a-mothering; see mothering.

amphiboly, an ambiguity, a sentence that can be construed in two different senses. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Compass). L. amphibolia; Gk. ἀμφιβολία, ambiguity.

amphisbÆna, a serpent fabled to have a head at each end, and hence capable of advancing in either direction. Milton, P. L. x. 524. Gk. ἀμφίσβαινα, a kind of serpent that can go either forwards or backwards (Aeschylus).

amrell, admiral. Skelton, How the douty Duke of Albany, 55. See ammiral.

amuse, to distract, bewilder, puzzle. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 6 (Macro); ‘I am amused, I am in a quandary, gentlemen.’ Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, ii. (D’Olive). See Dict.

an, if (freq. in Shaks.); in old edds. mostly written and. Of very freq. occurrence in the phrase an it please you, 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 18; an if, if, Othello, iii. 4. 83. See and if.

anadem, a wreath, chaplet. B. Jonson, Masque of the Barriers (Truth); Drayton, The Owl, 1168. Gk. ἀνάδημα, a headband; from ἀναδέειν, to bind up.

analects, pl. scraps, gleanings. ‘No gleanings, James? No trencher-analects?’ (lit. gleanings from trenchers), Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Rhymewell). Gk. ἀνάλεκτα, things gathered up; from ἀναλέγειν, to pick up.

anatomy, a skeleton. King John, iii. 4. 25; Com. Errors, v. 1. 238; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 121. Cf. atomy.

anchor, an anchorite, hermit. Hamlet, iii. 2. 229. ME. ancre, a hermit (P. Plowman, C. i. 30; ix. 146). OE. ancra (Ælfric), shortened from Eccles. L. anachoreta (Ducange); Gk. ἀναχορητής, one who withdraws, retires (from the world).

ancient, an ‘ensign’, standard, or flag. Hence, ancient-bearer, a standard-bearer, an ‘ensign’; ‘alfÉrez, an ancient-bearer, signifer’, Percivall, Span. Dict.; ‘office or charge, as captaine . . . sergeant, ancient-bearer’, Act 3, Jas. I (NED.); Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 2 (Shadow); also ancient (alone), ‘Welcome, Ancient Pistol!’ 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 120; Othello, i. 1. 33. A corrupt form of ensign. Anglo-F. enseigne, a standard (Rough List).

ancome, a boil, a foul swelling. Eastward Ho! iii. 2 (Mrs. T.). ‘Vijt, an ancombe, or a sore upon one’s finger’, Hexham. Ancome is a north-country word (EDD.). ME. oncome; used of the plagues of Egypt (Cursor M., 5927). Cp. Icel. Ákoma, arrival, visitation; eruption on the skin.

and if (a redundant expression, both particles having the same meaning). ‘But and yf that evyll servaunt shall saye in his herte,’ Tyndal, Matt. xxiv. 48 (cp. A. V.); Two Gent. iii. 1. 257; All’s Well, ii. 1. 74. See an.

andveld, an anvil. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216, back, 16. ME. anefeld (Wyclif, Job xli. 15), OE. anfilte (Sweet).

anele, to anoint with holy oil. ‘I aneele a sicke man, I anoynte hym with holy oyle’; and ‘I aneele a sicke man . . . j’enhuylle’, Palsgrave. Hence unaneled, q.v. ME. anelen (R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11269). Deriv. of OE. ele, oil, L. oleum.

an-end, on end. Hamlet, i. 5. 19; still an-end, continually, Two Gent. iv. 4. 68. An-end in the sense of ‘without stop or intermission’ is in prov. use in various parts of England from Durham to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. On-end, 3).

anenst, side by side with, beside, opposite, in view of; ‘And right anenst him’, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). See EDD. (s.v. Anent). ME. anentis, with, in view of; ‘Anentis men this thing is impossible, but anentis God alle thingis ben possible’ (Wyclif, Matt. xix. 26); anent ‘juxta’ (Barbour’s Bruce, viii. 124). OE. on efen, on even (ground) with.

angel, applied to a bird. ‘An angel of the air’, Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 16; ‘Roman angel’, the eagle, Massinger, ii. 2 (Harpax).

angel, a gold coin worth 10s. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 56. Very common, and often used in quibbles.

angelot, a small rich cheese, made in Normandy. Davenant, The Wits, iv. 1 (Y. Pallantine). Said to be so called from being stamped with the coin called an angelot, a piece struck by Louis XI (so LittrÉ). F. angelot, the cheese called an angelot (Cotgr.).

angler, a term used of a thief who fished for plunder, through an open window, with a rod, line, and hook. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

another-gates, of a different kind. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i. c. 3. 428; Lyly, Mother Bombie, A. i (Nares). From gate, a way; lit. ‘of another way’. In prov. use in Lancashire (EDD.).

another-guess, of a different kind. ‘This is another-guess sort’, Foote, The Orators, A. iii (O’Drogheda). Howell has the intermediate form another-gets in his Famil. Letters, vol. i. sect. 4. letter 9 (Feb. 5, 1635). Corruption of the form above. In prov. use in Gloucestershire (EDD.).

anslaight, an onslaught. Fletcher, M. Thomas, ii. 2 or ii. 3 (Sebastian). Some read onslaught; see NED.

anthropophagi, pl. man-eaters, cannibals. Othello, i. 3. 144; Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 111 (Orlando, p. 90, col. 2). L. pl. of anthropophagus, Gk. ἀνθρωποφάγος, man-eating; from ἄνθρωπος, a man, φαγεῖν, to eat.

antick, a grotesque pageant or theatrical representation. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, iii. 2 (Fernando); Love’s Lab. L., v. 1. 119.

antick, a burlesque performer, buffoon, merry-andrew. Richard II, iii. 2. 162; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 51. Ital. antico, grotesque. L. antiquus, antique. For the development of the meaning of the Ital. antico from ‘antique’ to ‘grotesque’, see the full account in NED.

antimasque, a burlesque interlude between the acts of a masque. The prefix is uncertain; perhaps for L. ante, before (NED.). But B. Jonson has the form antick-masque, Masque of Augurs (Noteh). Bacon has anti-masque, Essay 37; cf. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 2 (Lorenzo).

antiperistasis, a contrast of circumstances; opposition. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Mercury). Gk. ἀντιπερίστασις, reciprocal replacement of two substances.

antlier, an antler, tine of a stag’s horn. ‘The first antlier, which Phoebus calleth and termeth antoiller’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. The lowest tine was the burre, growing out of the pearles; the second tine, the antlier; the third, the surantlier; the next, royal and surroyal; and those at the top, croches (more correctly spelt troches at p. 137); see Turbervile (as above), p. 54. ‘The thing that beareth the antliers, royals, and tops [or troches] ought to be called the beame, and the little clyffes or streakes therein are called gutters’; id. p. 53. OF. antoillier (F. andouiller).

antre, a cave. Othello, i. 3. 140. F. antre, L. antrum, Gk. ἄντρον.

aourne, to adorn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 223, back, 17; lf. 253, back, 15. Anglo-F. aourner (adourner), to adorn (Gower).

apaid, appaid, satisfied. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 381 (Guenthian); Chapman, Iliad, v. 143; Milton, P. L. xii. 401; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 28; v. 11. 64; Shep. Kal., Aug., 6. ME. apayed, satisfied (Wyclif, Luke iii. 14); pp. of apayen. Norm. F. apaier (Moisy); deriv. of paier, L. pacare, to pacify.

apayre, to impair, injure. Morte Arthur, leaf 51, back, 12; bk. iii. c. 3. ME. apeyryn, to make worse (Prompt. EETS. 21). OF. empeirer, deriv. of L. peiorare, from peior, worse. See appair.

apeche, appeche, to ‘impeach’, charge with a crime. Morte Arthur, leaf 212, back, 23; bk. x. c. 7; ‘I apeche, I accuse’, Palsgrave. ME. apechyn, ‘appellare’ (Prompt. EETS. 13). Anglo-F. empescher (Rough List). Late L. impedicare, to hinder, catch by a fetter (Ducange). See appeach.

A-per-se, A by itself; a type of excellence, because A begins the alphabet. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iii. 3 (Lazarillo); Mirror for Mag., Warwicke, st. 1.

apostata, apostate. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 3 (Theoph.); v. 2 (Artemia). The usual old form.

apostle spoons, silver spoons, the handle of each terminating in the figure of an apostle; usually given by sponsors at christenings. B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, Act i (Quarlous); Fletcher, Noble Gentlemen, v. 2 (Longueville).

appair, apaire, to impair, damage. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § last; Skelton, Against Garnesche, i. 19. Also intrans.; ‘I appayre or waxe worse’, Palsgrave. See apayre.

appeach, to ‘impeach’, accuse, censure. Richard II, v. 2. 79; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 47. See apeche.

apperil, peril, risk. Timon, i. 2. 32; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 3 (Sledge); Magnetic Lady, v. 6 (Ironside).

appertise, dexterity, a feat of dexterity. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 122, back, 4; lf. 303, back, 29. OF. appertise, ‘industrie, dextÉritÉ, tour d’adresse’; Histoire de Charles VII: ‘Fist de belles vaillances et appertises d’armes contre les Anglois’, see Didot, Glossaire; appert, ‘adroit industrieux, habile en sa profession’ (id.). Cp. O. Prov. espert, ‘adroit, habile’ (Levy). L. expertus.

apple-John, or John-apple, an apple said to keep for two years, and in perfection when shrivelled. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 5; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Shadow). Ripe about St. John’s day (June 24). Purposely confused with apple-squire, a pander, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous).

apple-squire, a pander. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 8 (Kiteley); Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, Meg’s Song.

apposal, a posing question. Skelton has apposelle, Garl. of Laurell, 141. From appose, v.

appose, to ‘pose’, to ask a difficult question. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 14; Short Catechism, Edw. VI, 495 (NED.). ME. appose, apose (P. Plowman, C. ii. 45). Cp. to question (Chaucer, C. T. G. 363), Prompt. 13: ‘Aposen or oposyn, opponere’. F. aposer (for opposer), to make a trial of a person’s learning; see Palsgrave (s.v. Oppose).

appropinque, to approach. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i. c. 3. 590. L. appropinquare.

approve, to prove, demonstrate to be true; to corroborate, confirm. Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 79; All’s Well, iii. 7. 13; to put to the proof, test, as in approved, tested, tried, 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 54.

apricock, an apricot. Richard II, iii. 4. 29; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 1. 291. ‘Abricot, the abricot or apricock plumb’, Cotgrave. Apricock is in common prov. use in various parts of England from the north country to Somerset; abricock is the usual form in West Somerset (EDD.). Port. albricoque.

aqueity, watery quality. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle).

arace, arasche, to tear, tear away. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 256, back, 14; lf. 319. 1. ‘I arace, I pull a thyng by violence from one’, Palsgrave. ME. arace, to uproot (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 954). OF. esrachier; L. exradicare, to tear up by the roots.

arber, erber, the whole ‘pluck’ of a slain animal. To make the erbere, to take out the ‘pluck’, the first stage in disembowelling, Boke of St. Albans, fol. iij.; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Hubert); spelt arbor, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Marian). F. herbier, ‘le premier ventricule du boeuf et des autres animaux qui ruminent’, Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

arblast, a cross-bow used for the discharge of arrows, bolts, stones, &c., Caxton, Chron. Eng. xxviii. 23 (NED.). ME. arblaste (Rob. Glouc., ed. 1810, 377). Anglo-F. arbeleste, Late L. arcubalista, a bow for throwing missiles.

arblaster, a cross-bowman, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 144, back, 20; lf. 284, back, 30. ME. arblaster (K. Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 2613). Anglo-F. arblaster, Med. L. arcubalistarius (Ducange).

arcted, pp. closely allied. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 336. L. arctare, to draw close; from arctus, confined. See art (to constrain).

arecte, to assign, attribute, impute. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 95. The form used by Lydgate for arette. Med. L. arrectare, to accuse (Ducange), due to association with rectum. See arette.

areed, to counsel, advise. Milton, P. L. iv. 962; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 85; to explain, recount, Drayton, vi. 87. ME. arede, to explain, counsel (Chaucer). OE. ārǣdan, to explain.

areed, advice. Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, i. 3 (Little John); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 116.

arette, to count, reckon. Morte Arthur, Caxton’s Pref., leaf. 1, back. (Aret, arret, misused in Spenser in the sense of ‘to entrust, allot’; F. Q. ii. 8. 8; iii. 8. 7.) ME. aretten, to count, reckon (Wyclif, Luke xxii. 37). Anglo-F. aretter, to lay to one’s charge (Rough List); cp. Span. retar, to accuse. O. Prov. reptar, ‘blÂmer, accuser’ (Levy). L. reputare, to count, reckon.

arew, in a row. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 29. Chapman, tr. Iliad, vi. 259; Odyssey, viii. 679. Rew is a prov. form of the word ‘row’ (EDD.). ME. a-rew, ‘seriatim’ (Prompt. EETS. 15); a-rewe, in succession (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1254). OE. rǣw, a row. See rew.

argaile, argol; i.e. tartar deposited from wine and adhering to the side of a cask. B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Subtle). ME. argoile, crude tartar (Chaucer, C. T. G. 813). Anglo-F. argoil (Rough List).

argal, therefore. Hamlet, v. 1. 21. A clown’s substitution for L. ergo, therefore.

argent, silver; hence, money. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4 (Roister). F. argent. L. argentum, silver.

argent vive, quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon). Cp. F. vif-argent, quick-silver (Cotgr.).

Argier, ArgiÈr, Algier, Algiers. Argier, Temp. i. 2. 261; Argiers, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Beauf. sen.).

argin, an embankment in front of a fort, glacis. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 85; 3. 23. Ital. argine, ‘a banke’ (Florio). See Ducange (s.v. Arger (‘agger’) and Arginerius).

argolet, a light-armed horse-soldier. Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2. 2; iv. 1 (Abdelmelec). F. argolet (Cotgr.); argoulet, Essais de Montaigne I. xxv (ed. 1870, p. 68): ‘Les argoulets Étaient des arquebuisiers À cheval; et comme ils n’Étaient pas considÉrables en comparaison des autres cavaliers on a dit un argoulet pour un homme de nÉant’ (MÉnage).

argolettier, a light-armed horse-soldier. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i. ch. 25: ‘Guidone, a banner or cornet for horsemen that be shot, or Argolettiers’, Florio, Ital. Dict. See NED.

argosy, a merchant-vessel. Twice used as if it were plural; Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. The original sense was ‘a ship of Ragusa’, the name of a port in Dalmatia, on the Adriatic. Ragusa appears in 16th-cent. English as Aragouse, Arragosa (NED.).

argument, subject, topic, theme. Much Ado, i. 1. 266; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 104; ii. 4. 314. So L. argumentum (Quintilian).

arietation, an attack with a battering-ram. Bacon, Essay 58, § 8. L. ariēs, a ram.

armado, an army. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 14. Span. armada. Med. L. armata, army (Ducange); cp. F. armÉe.

armiger, an esquire. Purposely altered to armigero in Merry Wives, i. 1. 10. L. armiger, one who bears arms, in Med. L. an esquire.

armine, a beggar, a poor wretch. London Prodigal, v. 1. 174. Coined from Du. arm, poor; and put into the mouth of a supposed Dutchwoman.

armipotent, powerful in arms. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 545; iii. 293. L. armipotens, powerful in arms.

arms: phr. to give arms, to have the right to bear arms, in the heraldic sense. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo).

aroint thee!, begone!, out of the way!, make room!, ‘aroint thee, witch!’ King Lear, iii. 4. 127; Macbeth, i. 3. 6. ‘A lady well acquainted with the dialect of Cheshire informed me that the word is still in use there. For example, if the cow presses too close to the maid who is milking her, she will give the animal a push, saying at the same time, ’Roynt thee! by which she means, stand off’ (Nares). Roint is used in this sense in the north country: Yorks., Lancs., and Cheshire (EDD.). OE. rȳm Ðū, gerȳm Ðū, make thou room, cp. rȳm Þysum men setl, give this man place (Luke xiv. 9); rȳman, to make room, deriv. of rūm, wide, roomy. See Dict.

arpine, arpent, a French acre. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1 (near the end). F. arpent.

arraign, to arrange, place. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Suffolk), ed. Dyce, p. 187: ‘See them arraign’d, I will set forward straight’, Webster (Wks. ii. 261). See Halliwell.

arras-powder, orris-powder. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 41. So also arras, orris; Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2 (Duchess). See Halliwell (s.v. Arras (2)).

arraught, pt. t., seized forcibly, with violence. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 34. ME. arahte, pt. t. of arachen, to obtain, attain (Gower, C. A. i. 3207). OE. ārǣcan, to attain.

arre, to snarl as a dog. ‘They arre and bark’, Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Autumn), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 44; ‘a dog snarling er’, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1. 691 (Subtle).

arrearages, arrears. Massinger, Picture, ii. 2 (Honoria); Cymb. ii. 4. 13. OF. arerage; from arere, behind.

arrect, to direct upwards, to raise. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 55; to set upright, ‘I arecte . . . or set up a thyng; Je metz sus . . . je metz debout’, Palsgrave. From L. arrect-, pp. stem of arrigere, to raise up.

arride, to please, gratify. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of his Humour, ii. 1 (Fastidious); Marmion, The Antiquary, ii. 1 (Mocinigo). L. arridere, to smile upon.

arrouse, to bedew, moisten. Spelt arowze, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 103; arrowsid, pp., Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 249, back, l. 24. Norm. F. ar(r)ouser, ‘arroser’ (Moisy). O. Prov. arozar (Levy). Romanic type *arrosare, L. ad + rorare, fr. ros, dew.

arsedine, a gold-coloured alloy of copper and zinc, rolled into thin leaf, and used to ornament toys. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Trash). Of unknown origin.

arsee-versee, adv., backside foremost, contrary-wise, conversely. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 13; Diogenes, § 45; ‘fighting arsie-versie’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 827; ‘Cul sur pointe, topsie-turvy, arsie-varsie’, Cotgrave. In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Arsy-versy).

arsmetrike, arithmetic. Fabyan, vii. 604 (NED.). ME. arsmetrike (Chaucer, C. T. D. 2222); arsmetique (Gower, C. A. vii. 149). OF. arismetique, Med. L. arismetica for L. arithmetica, Gk. ἡ ἀριθμητική (τέχνη). The form arsmetrike is due to popular etymology, which associated the word with L. ars metrica, ‘the art of measure’. See NED. (s.v. Arithmetic).

arsmetry, a corruption of arsmetrick, by form-association with geometry. Greene, A Looking-glass, iii. 2 (1161); p. 132, col. 1.

arson, saddle-bow. ‘The arson of his sadel’, Morte Arthur, leaf 339, back, 22; bk. xvi. c. 10. F. arÇon.

art, to constrain. Court of Love, l. 46. ‘I arte, I constrayne’, Palsgrave. L. artare, to confine. See arcted.

artier, an artery. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, v. 3 (Physician). F. artere, ‘an artery’ (Cotgr.). L. arteria, Gk. ἀρτηρία.

artillery, missile weapons. ‘Artillarie now a dayes is taken for ii. thinges, Gunnes and Bowes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 65; Bacon, Essay 29, § 3; Fairfax, Tasso xvii. 49; Bible, 1 Sam. xx. 40 (AV.). Norm. F. artillerie, ‘armes de jet et de trait, non À feu; comme arbalÈtes, flÈches, lances, etc.’ (Moisy).

askaunces, as if, as much as to say. Gascoigne, Dan Bartholomew; ed. Hazlitt, i. 113, l. 4; i. 136, l. 16. So in Chaucer, C. T. G. 838. Cp. OF. quanses, as if (Godefroy). See Romania, xviii. 152; Cliges (ed. FÖrster, l. 4553, note). The M. Dutch quansijs (as if saying, as much as to say) in Reinaert, 2569 (ed. Martin, p. 78) is probably the same word as the OF. quanses. The Chaucerian use of ascaunces in Tr. and Cr. i. 205, 292 is precisely the same as that of als quansijs in Reinaert.

aspect, (aspÉct), the peculiar position and influence of a planet. King Lear, ii. 2. 112. Common. ME. aspect, the angular distance between two planets (Chaucer).

asper, a Turkish coin worth about two farthings or less. Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Jamie). F. aspre. Byzantine Gk. ἄσπρον, white money, from ἄσπρος, white.

asprely, fiercely. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 17. § 8. OF. aspre; L. asper, fierce.

assalto, assault. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 7 (Bobadil). Ital. assalto.

assassinate, an assassin, murderer. Dryden, Span. Friar, iv. 1 (Dominic); Don Sebastian, v. 1 (Almeyda).

assay, proof, trial; attempt; attack. Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; ii. 2. 71; iii. 3. 69. At all assays, in every trial or juncture, in any case, on every occasion, always, Drayton, Harmony of the Church, Ecclus. xxxvi. st. 6; ‘At all assayes, en tous poynts’, Palsgrave. ME. assay, trial (Chaucer, C. T. D. 290). Anglo-F. assai (Gower).

assinego, a donkey, a dolt. Also asinego, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Welford); asinigo, Marmion, Antiquary, v. 1 (Ant.). Spelt asinico in ed. 1606; Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 49; Span. asnico, ‘a little asse’ (Minsheu), deriv. of asno, an ass, L. asinus, ass.

assistant, used by Fletcher for Span. asistente, the chief officer of justice at Seville. Span. Curate, iii. 1. 15.

assoil, to set free, to dispel. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 58; iv. 5. 30. A peculiar use of assoil, to absolve. ME. assoilen, to absolve, pardon, discharge (Chaucer). Anglo-F. assoiler, to pardon (Rough List); -soiler is formed from the present stem soille of the verb soldre, Romanic type sol’re, L. solvere, to loosen.

assoil, used for soil, to sully, taint. Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iii. 1 (Euphanes). [NED. quotes a modern instance, from D’Israeli.]

assot, to befool, make a fool of. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 8; iii. 8. 22; assot, pp. infatuated, Shep. Kal., March, 25. Anglo-F. assoter, to make a fool of, deriv. of sot, a fool (Gower). Med. L. sottus, ‘stolidus, bardus, simplex’ . . . ‘hinc Carolus Sottus, qui vulgo “Simplex” ’ (Ducange).

assurd, to burst forth. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 302. OF. assordre, essordre, L. exsurgere.

assured, affianced. Com. Errors, iii. 2. 145; King John, ii. 535.

astart, to start up. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 29.

astarte, to escape. Turbervile, Hunting, 138. ME. asterte, to escape (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1802).

astert, to come suddenly upon, happen suddenly to. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 187. ME. asterte, to happen, befall (Gower, C. A. i. 722; v. 707).

astone, to astound, confound. Peele, Sir Clyomon; ed. Dyce, p. 526. ME. aston-en (Chaucer); OF. estoner; Pop. Lat. extonare, for L. attonare, to stun, stupefy as by thunder, tonare, to thunder.

astonied, astonished, astounded. Bible, AV.: Job xvii. 8; Jer. xiv. 9; North’s Plutarch, M. Antonius (ed. Skeat, p. 204); stunned, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 227; spelt astoynde, astounded, Sackville Mirrour, Induct. 29. ME. astonie, to amaze (Chaucer, H. Fame, iii. 1174). See stoin.

astracism, an astracism, or collection of stars. ‘The threefold astracism’, Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. Possibly a deriv. of Med. L. astracum ‘pavimentum domus’ (Ducange); cp. Ital. astracco, a fretted ceiling (Florio).

at-after, after. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 22; Richard III, iv. 3. 31. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north to Shropshire (EDD.). ME. at after (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1445).

at all! a gamester’s exclamation, when he challenges all present. ‘Cry at all!’, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2. 4; ‘have at all!’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 391.

atchievement, ‘achievement’, an ensign memorial granted in memory of some achievement or distinguished feat. Milton, Tetrachordon (Trench, Sel. Gl.); Dryden, Palamon, iii. 344, 932.

athanor, an alchemist’s furnace. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). Arab. attannūr; al, the, tannūr, furnace.

atomy, an atom. As You Like It, iii. 2. 245; a tiny being, id. iii. 5. 13.

atomy, an emaciated person, a walking skeleton. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 33 (Qu. 1597). For anatomy (a skeleton), the an- being taken for the indef. article.

atone, to set two persons ‘at one’. ‘Since we cannot atone you’, Richard III, i. 1. 202; to agree, Coriolanus, iv. 6. 72.

atonement, reconciliation. Richard III, i. 3. 36; Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, i. 1 (Rolls).

attaint, to hit, strike, wound. ‘His attainted thigh’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 572; attaint, pp. stricken, Sackville, Induction, st. 15. ‘I atteynt, I hyt or touche a thyng, Iattayngs’, Palsgrave.

attame, to commence. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 19, 12; lf. 71, back, 28. OF. atamer; L. attaminare, to lay hands on. Cp. O. Prov. entamenar. ‘entamer’ (Levy). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Entamer).

atte, for at the; atte last, at the last; atte castel, at the castle; Morte Arthur (see Glossary); atten ale (at nale), at the ale-house; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 387. ME. atte, at the (Chaucer); atte nale, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, c. viii. 19).

attend, attendance. Greene, A Looking-glass, i. 1. 8.

attent, attentive, attentively. Milton, P. R. i. 385; Dryden, Wife of Bath, 310.

attentate, a criminal attempt or assault. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 86. F. attentat, ‘tentative criminelle’ (Hatzfeld).

atteynt, an ‘attaint’, a wound on a horse’s foot due to a blow or injury; either from overstepping, or from being trodden on by another horse. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 113; Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, 313 (NED.).

attonce, at once. Peele, Arr. of Paris, iii. 2 (Paris); iv. 1 (Paris).

attract, an attractive quality, charm. ‘The Soule . . . glides after these attracts’, Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1639, p. 117). Late L. attractus, attraction.

attrapt, ‘trapped’, furnished with ‘trappings’; said of a horse. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 39.

attrite, worn by friction. Milton, P. L. x. 1073. L. attritus.

atwite, to reproach, upbraid, twit. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 85; spelt attwite, Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 25. OE. Æt, prep., and wītan, to blame. The mod. E. twit is a shortened form of atwite.

auberge, a lodging, a term technically applied to a reception-house provided by the Knights Hospitallers, hence, to their fraternity. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 3 (Mountferrat). F. auberge, O. Prov. alberga. Cp. Med. L. albergia, ‘apud Milites Hospital. S. Joan. Hieros. vocantur domus, in quibus Fratres Ordinis per nationes una comedunt et congregantur. Statuta ejusd. Ordin. tit. 19 § 3’ (Ducange).

aubifane, the corn blue-bottle, Centaurea cyanus. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 14, p. 158. F. aubifoin, the weed Blew-bottle (Cotgr.).

auke, backward, contrary to the usual way, from left to right. ‘With an auke stroke’, Morte Arthur, leaf 156, back; bk. viii. c. 25 (end); ‘Ringing as awk as the bells, to give notice of the conflagration’, Lestrange, Fables (NED.). In E. Anglia bells are said to be ‘rung awk’ when they are rung backward or contrary to the usual way, to give alarm of fire (EDD.). The word is found in many German dialects: Kurhessen, afk perverse (Vilmar). See awk.

auke, untoward, froward. Tusser, Husbandry, § 62. 13.

aukly, inauspiciously; said of the flight of birds. Golding, Metam. v. 147; fol. 57, back.

aulf, elf, goblin. Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 10. See ouphe.

aumayld, enamelled. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 57. Deriv. of OF. amail, for esmail, enamel. See amell.

aums-ace, double aces; given as the name of a card-game. Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 35. See ames-ace.

aunt, a cant term for a bawd or procuress. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (first speech); Michaelmas Term, ii. 3 (Thomasine).

aunters: in phr. in aunters, in case, in case that, if. ‘In aunters the Englishmen shoulde sturre’, Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, p. 57. Aunters (without in) was used in the same sense, and represented an adverbial form founded on aunter, a contraction of aventure (Mod. E. adventure); see Aunters in NED. Cp. the Yorkshire word anters: ‘We must have it ready, anters they come’ (i.e. in case they come); see EDD. (s.v. Aunters, 2).

autem mort, a married woman (Cant). ‘Autem-mortes be maried wemen’, Harman, Caveat, p. 67. He adds ‘for Autem in their [slang] language is a Churche; so she is a wyfe maried at the Church’. Spelt autumn mort, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Randal).

avails, profits, proceeds, ‘vails’. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 94).

avale, avail, to sink, descend, droop; also, to lower, let down. To sink, Spenser. F. Q. i. 1. 21; iii. 2. 29; to descend, ii. 9. 10; iv. 3. 46; to droop, Shep. Kal., Feb., 8; to lower, let down, F. Q. iv. 10. 19; Shep. Kal., Jan., 73. Anglo-F. avaler, to lower, bring down, swallow, deriv. of aval, down, lit. to the valley (Gower), L. ad vallem.

avaunce, to advance, promote, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 71. ME. avaunce, to promote (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2022). Anglo-F. avancer (Gower).

avaunt, to ‘vaunt’, boast. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 6. ME. avaunten (Chaucer). Anglo-F. s’avanter, to boast; avantance, avanterie, boasting (Gower).

Ave-Mary bell, a bell rung daily (once or twice) to direct the recital of an Ave-Maria, or prayer to the Virgin. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 1. § 3.

avenant, suitable; after the avenant, in proportion, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 149. 30; at avenant, in proportion, id. lf. 225. 4. ‘Fayre and avenant’, fair and graceful, id. lf. 256. 4. ME. avenaunt, graceful, comely (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1263). Anglo-F. avenant, suitable, agreeable (Gower), pres. pt. of avenir, to be suitable (id.).

avente him, to refresh himself with air. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 298. 2. ME. aventen, to open the helmet to admit the cool air, to refresh with cool air (Merlin, xx. 335). Anglo-F. aventer; cp. OF. esventer (mod. Éventer), Med. L. eventare (Ducange), L. ex + ventus, wind.

†aventre (?). ‘[She] aventred her spear’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; ‘[He] aventred his spear’, iv. 3. 9; ‘aventring his lance’, iv. 6. 11. The phrase ‘they aventred their speres’ occurs in King Arthur (ed. Copland); see NED. Can this word be an error for aveutre? Aveutre = afeutre = OF. afeutrer, to lay a spear in rest in the feutre, the felt-lined socket for a lance or spear attached to the saddle of a knight. Spenser has the verb fewter equivalent in meaning to afeutrer in F. Q. iv. 6. 10: ‘He his threatfull speare Gan fewter’. See NED. (s.v. Fewter).

aventure, in phr. at aventure, at adventure, at hazard, at random. Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 34 (improperly printed at a venture); ‘Certayn . . . rode forthe at adventure’, Berners, Froissart, I. cxcii. ME. aventure, chance, peril (Gower). Anglo-F. aventure, chance, danger, uncertainty: par aventure (Gower, Mirour, 1239).

averruncate, to avert, ward off. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i, c. 1. 758. L. auerruncare, to avert. Often explained in the 17th cent. by ‘to weed out’, or ‘to root up’, but Butler uses the word correctly. See NED.

aversation, aversion. Bacon, Essay 27.

avile, to hold cheap, think little of. B. Jonson, Prince Henry’s Barriers (Lady). Anglo-F. aviler, to debase (Gower).

avise, to see, observe; to think; refl. to bethink. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 31; iv. 2. 22; iii. 12. 10; refl. ii. 6. 46; iii. 3. 6. To be avised of, to be well informed about, Merry Wives, i. 4. 106; Meas. ii. 2. 132. ME. avise, refl. to consider (Chaucer, C. T. B. 664). Anglo-F. s’aviser, to take thought (Gower).

avisefull, observant. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 26.

avision, a dream, vision. Douglas, Aeneid, iii. 1. 69. ME. avisioun (Lydgate, Temple of Glas, 1374). Anglo-F. avisioun (Gower).

aviso, advice, intelligence, piece of information. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Habington, Castara, ed. Arber, p. 102. Span. aviso, information.

avouch, to maintain, make good. Mids. Night’s D., i. 1. 106; Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 12. Hence avouch, assurance, Hamlet, i. 1. 37.

avoure, acknowledgement, avowal. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 48. OF. avouer, an avowal, prop. infin., to avow.

avoutry, adultery. Paston, Letters, no. 883; vol. iii, p. 317; Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 175. ME. avouterye (Chaucer). Anglo-F. avoulterie (Gower).

avowre, to vow, devote. Only in Phaer, Aeneid, viii. 85, Latin text (M iiij, l. 6). See NED.

awaite: in await (awate), in ambush. Fairfax, tr. Tasso, v. 18. Anglo-F. en await (agwait, agueit, agait), in ambush, lying in wait (Rough List, s.v. Await).

awaite: in phr. to have good awaite, to take good care. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 5, § 10.

a-wallop, in a boiling state, boiling quickly. Golding, Metam. vii. 263; fol. 82 (1603). Cp. the prov. word wallop, ‘to boil violently with a bubbling sound’, in common use in Scotland and in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Wallop, vb.²).

awbe, a bull-finch. Gascoigne, Philomene, l. 35. ME. alpe, ‘ficedula’ (Prompt.). See nope.

awful, profoundly reverential. Richard II, iii. 3. 76; Dryden, Britannia, 106.

awhape, to amaze, confound. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 5; v. 11. 32. ME. awhapen (Chaucer).

awk, reversed; the awk end, the wrong end, the other end. Golding, Metam. xiv. 300 (L. ‘conversae verbere virgae’); fol. 170, back (1603). See auke.

awkward, untoward, unfavourable, adverse. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 83; Marlowe, Edw. II, iv. 6. 34.

axtree, axle-tree. Drayton, Pol. i. 498. Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.¹ 3). OE. oex-trēo.

aygulets, an aglet, metal tag. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25. A doublet of aglet. Spenser seems to speak here of the bright metal tops or tags of lace, which he likens to stars; as in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 4. 2. F. aiguillette, a point (Cotgr.), dimin. of aiguille, a needle.

ayle, a grandfather. ‘Ayle, Pere, and Fitz, grandfather, father, and son’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i (Jerry). ME. ayel, grandfather (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2477). Norm. F. aiel (Moisy).

azoch, ‘azoth’, the alchemist’s name for quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt assogue. F. assogue; Span. azogue, quicksilver; Arab. az-zāūq; zāūq is adapted from Pers. zhīwah (jīvah), quicksilver. See NED., Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Azogue).

B

babion, baboon. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Drayton, Man in the Moon, 331; spelt babyone Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124, l. 163. F. ‘babion, a babion or baboone’ (Cotgr.).

bable, a ‘bauble’, a toy, trick, fancy. ‘Has fill’d my head So full of bables’ (some edd. baubles), Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 7; ‘That bable called love’, Lyly, Endimion, iii. 3 (Epi.). OF. babel, baubel, a child’s plaything (Godefroy); beau + bel, cp. F. bonbon.

bace, (Spenser); see base.

bacharach, backrack, the name of a wine. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Vandunke); Bacrack, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 300. From Bacharach, on the Rhine. See backrag.

back, a bat. Backes or reermice; Golding, Metam., iv. 415; fol. 49 (1603). The pl. backes is the form used by Wyclif, Coverdale and the Geneva Bible, in Isaiah ii. 20, where AV. has battes, see NED. (s.v. Bat). In Scotland the usual word for the bat is Backie (or Backie-bird), see EDD. (s.v. Backie, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

backare!, go back, keep back. ‘Backare! quod Mortimer to his sow; i.e. keep back, said Mortimer’; an old proverb, often quoted against such as are too forward, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Roister); Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 72. See EDD. (s.v. Baccare).

backcheat, stolen apparel, lit. things from the back. (Thieves’ cant.) ‘Back or belly-cheats’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See cheat.

backrag, the name of a wine. Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1 (Bornwell); Mayne, City Match, i. 3 (near the end). See bacharach.

backside, a yard behind a farmhouse. Witch of Edmonton, iv. 1 (Old Banks). Very common in prov. usage, see EDD. (s.v. Backside, 2).

badger-nab, a strong little badger. ‘Meg [a witch] What Beast was by thee hither rid? Mawd [second witch] A Badger-nab’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iv. 1, vol. iv. p. 220. Cp. knab, a strong boy, a thickset, strong little animal (EDD.).

baffle, to treat with ignominy and contempt. It was originally a punishment inflicted on recreant knights, one part of it being that the victim was hung up by the heels and beaten. See Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 27; Beaumont and Fl., A King and no King, iii. 2 (Bessus); 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 113; Richard II, i. 1. 170. See Trench, Select Glossary, and NED.

bag: phr. to give the bag, to cheat. Westward Ho, iv. 2 (Honeysuckle).

bagage, refuse, worthless stuff; ‘When brewers put no bagage in their beere’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1082; Tusser, Husbandry, st. 21. An Essex word in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Baggage, sb.¹). Cp. Port. bagaÇo, ‘marc; ce qui reste de plus grossier de quelque fruit, qu’on a pressÉ pour en retirer le suc’ (Roquette).

bagatine, a small Italian coin, worth about the third part of a farthing. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 2 (Vol.). Ital. bagatino, bagattino, ‘a little coyne vsed in Italie’ (Florio).

bagle, a staff, or crosier such as a bishop carries. Bagle-rod, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 188 (see the side-note). Icel. bagall, a crosier, L. baculum, a rod, staff.

bague, baghe, a ring, brooch. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 54, back, 8; lf. 98. 11. F. bague.

baies, scoldings (?). ‘Ill servant . . . deserveth hir fee to be paid hir with baies’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 2.

bain, a bath. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, x. 567; to bathe, Greene, The Palmer’s Verses, l. 88 (Capricornus); bayne, Surrey, Desc. of restless state of a Lover, 13. F. bain.

bain, supple, lithe. Golding, Metam. iv. 354 (fol. 48); xv. 202; fol. 182 (1603). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bain, sb. 1). ME. beyn, ‘flexibilis’ (Prompt.). Icel. beinn, straight; also, ready to serve.

bains; see banes.

bait, to stop at an inn to feed the horses, also to stop for refreshment; used fig. ‘Evil news rides post, while good news baits’, Milton, Samson, 1538. In prov. use in the sense of stopping to feed. See EDD. (s.v. Bait, vb.¹ 2).

bald, marked with white upon the head. Hence ‘bald coot’, a coot (Fulica atra); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 1 (Zanthia). In prov. use (EDD.).

bale, a set of dice; usually three. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 1 (Young Chartley); A Woman never vexed, ii. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Bale, sb.³ 4).

ball, a white streak on a horse’s face. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 73. Hence ball, as a horse’s name; orig. one marked with a white streak; Tusser, Husbandry, § 95, st. 2. Prob. of Celtic origin; cp. Gael. ball, spot, mark, Breton bal, a white mark on an animal’s face.

balloon, a game in which a large ball (like a football) was struck by the arm, which was protected by a stout guard. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Sir Petronel); Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, iv. 1 (1st Lady). Balloo, in the phr. at the Balloo (B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1: Volpone), must be an error for at the Balloon, i.e. when playing at the game. Also balloon-ball, Middleton, Game at Chess, ii. 1 (B. Knight).

ballow, smooth. ‘Ballowe wood’, i.e. smooth wood without bark, see Nottingham Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson, vol. iv, Glossary (date of entry 1504); ‘The ballow nag’, Drayton, Pol. iii. 24. ME. balhow, smooth, plain (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 136).

ballow, in King Lear, iv. 6. 247, prob. means a quarter-staff made from ballow wood. See above.

ban, to curse, imprecate damnation on. 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 25; a curse, Hamlet, iii. 2. 269. Icel. banna, to prohibit, curse.

band, a collar, lying flat upon the dress, worn round the neck by man or woman. Also called falling-bands, Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Mary). The falling band succeeded the cumbersome ruff.

band, to bandy about, like a tennis-ball. Look about You, sc. 32, l. 5; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 490.

banding-ball, a ball to be driven about at tennis or in the game of bandy. Wounds of Civil War; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 116.

bando, a proclamation. Shirley, Sisters, v. 2 (Longino). Ital. bando, a public proclamation (Dante).

bandoleer, bandalier, a broad belt, worn over the shoulder and across the breast. Peele, Polyhymnia, The Third Couple (l. 10). Hence, a wearer of a bandoleer was himself called by the same name. Thus Gascoigne has: ‘Their peeces then are called Petronels, And they themselves by sundrie names are called, As Bandolliers . . . Or . . . Petronelliers’, Works, i. 408. See Dict.

bandora, a kind of guitar; now called banjo. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (hymn); also pandore, Drayton, Pol. iv. 361. Ital. pandora, a bandora (Florio).

bandrol, a long narrow flag, with a cleft end; a streamer from a lance. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 211. Spelt bannerall, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 26. F. banderole, a little flag or streamer, a penon (Cotgr.).

banes, ‘banns’ of marriage (the usual spelling to 1661); Tam. Shrew, ii, 1. 181; spelt bains, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 36. ME. bane of a play (or mariage, Pynson), ‘banna’ (Prompt.).

bangling, frivolous contention, squabbling. Englishmen for my Money, iv. 1 (Heigham); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 528.

banquerout, bankrout, a bankrupt. Webster, Appius, v. 2 (Virginius); Com. Errors, iv. 2. See Dict. (s.v. Bankrupt).

banquet, a slight refection, a dessert after dinner. Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 9; Timon, i. 2. 160; ‘The Banquet is brought in’, Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 1 (stage direction).

barate, treason. Caxton, Hist. Troye, 327, back, 10; 335. 29. OF. barat, deceit. See NED. (s.v. Barrat).

barathrum, abyss, a bottomless pit. ‘To the lowest barathrum’, Heywood, Silver Age (Pluto), vol. iii. p. 159; used fig. ‘You barathrum of the shambles!’ Massinger, New Way, iii. 2 (Greedy); (cp. barathrumque macelli, Horace, Epist. i. 15. 31). L. barathrum, the underworld; Gk. βάραθρον, the yawning cleft near the Acropolis at Athens, down which criminals were thrown.

baratour, a quarrelsome person, a brawler, a rowdy, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 12. § 8. ME. baratowre, ‘pugnax, rixosus, jurgosus’ (Prompt.). Norm. F. barateur ‘provocateur, querelleur’ (Moisy), deriv. of barat, ‘lutte, dispute’ (id.).

baratresse, a female warrior. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 500.

†baratto, barrato, a small boat; explained as ‘an Indian boat’. Fletcher, Island Princess, i. 1. 19; ii. 6 (end).

barb, to shave. Turbervile, Trag. T. 53 (NED.); to mow, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole); to clip money, B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Face). F. barber, to shave, to cut the beard (Cotgr.).

barbed, wearing a barb. From barb, lit. a beard (F. barbe); hence, a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the chin, and reaching midway to the waist; chiefly worn by nuns. ‘Barbyd lyke a nonne’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1000.

bard; see barred.

bard cater-tray, for barred cater-tray, a kind of false dice in which the throws cater (four) and tray (three) were barred, or prevented from being likely to appear. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). NED. quotes from Diceplay (1532), ed. 1850, p. 24:—‘a well-favoured die that seemeth good and square, yet is the forehead longer on the cater and tray than any other, way . . . Such be also called bard cater-tres, because, commonly, the longer end will, of his own sway, draw downwards, and turn up to the eye sice, sinke, deuis or ace; i.e. 6, 5, 2, or 1, but not 4 or 3’.

baretour, a fighting man, a brawler. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aen. i. 472; id. i. 142. Anglo-F. barettour (Rough List). See baratour.

bargenette, bargynet, the name of a rustic dance, accompanied with a song. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 20. § 12; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 430. Variant of bargaret or bargeret; F. bergerette, ‘chant que les bergers chantaient le jour de PÂques’ (Hatzfeld). See NED. (s.v. Bargeret).

barley-bread, coarse food. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 637.

barley-break, an old country-game; usually one couple, left in a middle den termed ‘hell’, had to catch the other two couples (who were allowed to separate and ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners); when caught, they had to take their turn as catchers. Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 34; ‘A course at barley-break’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, A. i (Clarion). The last couple left were said to be in hell: ‘Barly-break: or Last in Hel’, a poem by Herrick. See EDD.

barley-hood, a fit of ill-temper, brought on by drunkenness. So called because caused by barley, i.e. malt liquor. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 372. See EDD.

barn, a ‘bairn’, a child. Much Ado, iii. 4. 48. ME. barne, ‘infans’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. bearn (Anglian barn).

barnacles, barnacle-geese. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 305 (where the fable is given). See EDD. (s.v. Barnacle, sb.¹).

barratry, vexatious persistence in litigation. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 695. See baratour.

barrÈd, misused for barded, i.e. caparisoned. Drayton, Pol. xii. 481. Shortened to bard; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, iii. 1 (Cornwall).

barred gown, a gown marked with stripes or bars of gold lace, like that of a judge or law-officer. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, i. 1 (Rolliardo).

barrendry, a barony, a title of a baron. Chapman, Humorous Day’s Mirth, p. 31. Anglo-F. baronnerie, a baronry, the domain of a baron, the rank or dignity of baron. See NED. (s.v. Baronry).

barriers, lists, as for a tournament. To fight at barriers, to fight within lists. ‘Jeu de Barres, a martial sport of men armed and fighting together with short swords within certain Barres or lists, whereby they are separated from the spectators’, Cowel’s Interpreter (ed. 1701). Webster, White Devil; ed. Dyce, p. 40; at p. 6, the ‘great barriers’ are said ‘to moult feathers’; alluding to the plumes cut from the helmets of the combatants.

barth, a warm place or pasture for calves or lambs. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 26; Coles, Dict., 1677. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). Prob. a derivative of OE. beorgan, to shelter, protect.

basciomani, kissings of the hand. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 56. Ital. basciamano, a kissing of the hand (Florio).

base, or prison-bars, the name of a boys’ game. To bid base, to challenge to pursuit, as in the game, Venus and Adonis, 303; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 5; at bace, id. v. 8. 5. ‘Barres, play at bace, or prison Bars’, Cotgrave. ME. bace, play, ‘barri’ (Prompt. EETS. 24, see note no. 100). ‘Barri sunt ludi, anglicÈ bace’ (Wright, Vocab. 176; foot-note).

bases, pl. (used like skirts), applied to a plaited skirt of cloth, velvet, or rich brocade, appended to the doublet, and reaching from the waist to the knee, common in the Tudor period. Massinger, Picture, ii. 1 (Sophia); Chapman, Mask of the Inner Temple, § 2. Called ‘a pair of bases’, Pericles, ii. 1. 167.

bash, to be abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 3; Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Venus); to make abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 75 (Rasni). In prov. use in both senses, see EDD. (s.v. vb.³).

basilisk, a species of ordnance. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 56; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 1. 2; Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 16 (ed. Furnivall, 281).

basket, the, one in which the broken meat and bread from the sheriffs’ table was carried to the counters, for poor prisoners. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Dr. Almanac). Hence, go to the basket, i.e. to prison, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, v. 1 (Pontalier). Cp. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iii. 4 (Rolliardo). There were three grades of prisoners in each of the counters; they occupied, respectively, the Master’s side, the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole. Those in the Hole paid nothing for their provisions, but depended upon the basket.

baslard, a kind of hanger, or small sword. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 18. Anglo-F. baselard. For the other French forms, bazelaire, badelaire, beaudelaire, see Ducange (s.vv. Basalardus, Basalaria, Bazalardus, Badelare).

basque, a short skirt. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling). F. basque, a short skirt (Cotgr.); from Basque, name of the ancient race inhabiting both slopes of the western Pyrenees.

bass, to kiss. ‘Bas me’, Skelton, Speke Parrot, 106; ‘I basse or kysse a person, Ie baise’, Palsgrave. F. baiser; L. basiare.

bassa, an earlier form of the Turkish military title ‘Bashaw’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 306; spelt basso, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 1. 1. Turkish bāshā, prob. fr. bāsh, a head. See NED. (s.v. Pasha).

basta, enough. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 203. Ital. (and Span.) basta, it is enough (Florio); Ital. bastare, and Span. bastar, to suffice.

bastard, a sweet Spanish wine resembling muscatel. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 30; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 12.

bastardeigne, for bastard eignÉ, firstborn bastard. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv (Widow). EignÉ is a late spelling of aynÉ, ainÉ; from F. aÎnÉ, OF. ainsnÉ; ains, before, + nÉ, born (Hatzfeld).

bastone, a ‘baton’, cudgel. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.). ME. baston, a cudgel (Cursor M. 15827). OF. baston (F. bÂton). See batoon.

batable, debatable. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. ‘Batable ground seemeth to be the ground in question heretofore whether it belonged to England or Scotland, 23 Hen. VIII, c. 16, as if we should say debatable ground,’ Cowell, Interp. (ed. 1637).

bate (short for abate), to reduce, diminish, decrease, deduct. Merch. Ven. iii. 3. 32; iv. 1. 72; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 2; Hamlet, v. 2. 23; to blunt, Love’s L. L. i. 1. 6. Phr. to bate an Ace, to abate a tittle, to make the slightest abatement, Heywood, Witches of Lancashire iv (Robin); vol. iv, p. 223, l. 2; Bate me an ace, quod Bolton, an expression of incredulity, R. Edwards, Damon and P. in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77 (NED. s.v. Bate, vb.² 6 d).

bate, to beat the wings impatiently and flutter away from the fist or perch. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 199; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 99 (old edd. bayted). F. se battre.

bate, bit, a northern form of the pret. of bite. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Bate vb.⁴).

batful, fattening, full of sustenance. Drayton, Pol. iii. 349; vii. 93; &c. See batten.

batoon, battoon, a stick, cudgel. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); battoon, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Egremont). See bastone.

battaile, a body of troops in battle array. Bacon, Essay 58, § 9; battayle, Psalm lxxvi. 3 (Bible 1539); the main battle, main body of an armed force, Richard III, v. 3. 301. Prov. batalha ‘troupe rangÉe’ (Levy).

batten, to feed gluttonously, Hamlet, iii. 4. 67; to fatten, ‘Battening our flocks’, Milton, Lycidas, 29; to grow fat, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Moon-calf). See Dict.

battle, (at Oxford) to have a kitchen and buttery account, to obtain provisions in college. ‘I eat my commons with a good stomach and battled with discretion’, Puritan Widow, i. 2. 42; ‘To battle, as scholars do in Oxford, Estre debteur au College pour ses vivres’, Sherwood, Dict. 1672.

battle, battill, to grow fat. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 38; battling, fattening, nourishing to cattle, Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 9. 4; nutritious to man, Golding, tr. of Ovid Met. xv. 359. See batten.

battle. See battaille.

battled, ‘embattled’, furnished with battlements. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria).

battree, a battle, encounter. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, 16; Pompey, 1. Variant of battery.

baudkin, a rich embroidered stuff, a rich brocade. Holland, Camden’s Brit. i. 174; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 777. Hence, cloth of bodkin, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Frederick); B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxviii; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. OF. baudequin, med. L. baldakinus (Ducange), cp. Ital. baldacchino, lit. belonging to Baldacco, the Italian name for Bagdad.

baudricke, ‘a baldric’, belt, girdle. Spenser calls the zodiac the baudricke (or bauldricke) of the heavens, F. Q. v. 1. 11; Prothalamion, 174. ME. bawdryk (Prompt.), MHG. balderich, a girdle (Schade). See Dict. (s.v. Baldric).

†bause (?). Only in this passage: ‘My spaniel slept, whilst I baus’d leaves’, Marston, What you Will, ii. 2 (Lam.).

bauson, bawson, a badger. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 71; bauzon’s skin; Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 10. Bauson is a common north-country word for a badger, see EDD. Cp. OF. bausen, bauzan, black and white spotted, Ital. balzano, a horse with white feet (Florio). See NED. The French word for a badger is blaireau.

baux (a plural form), the name of a breed of swift hounds used in the chase; ‘Those dogges called Baux of Barbarie, of the whiche Phoebus doeth speake’, Turbervile, Hunting, ch. i. p. 3; ‘White dogges called Baux, and surnamed Greffiers’, id. ch. ii, p. 4; ‘Greffiers, a kind of white hounds, the same as Bauds’, Cotgrave; ‘Souillard, the name of a dog, between which and a bitch called Baude, the race of the Bauds (white and excellent hounds) was begun’ (id.). Comb. Baux-hound, Holme’s Academy of Armory, p. 184. F. baud, ‘chien courant, originaire de Barbarie’ (Hatzfeld). Probably of Germanic origin, cp. OHG. bald, bold (Schade).

bavian, a baboon, an occasional character in the old Morris dance. He appears in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. See Nares. Du. baviaan.

bawcock, a fine fellow, Hen. V, iii. 2. 27; Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 125. A Lincolnshire word for a foolish person (EDD.). Hence probably the surname ‘Bawcock’, see Bardsley, 475. F. beau coq, a fine cock.

bawn, a fortified enclosure, outwork of a castle. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed. p. 642, col. 2. Irish baḋḃḋÚn, an enclosure (Dinneen).

bawson, see bauson.

bay, see beck and bay, at.

bayard, the name of the horse given to Renaud, one of the Four Sons of Aymon (name of a romance), hence, a common name for a horse; ‘Bolde bayarde, ye are to blynde’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 123, l. 101; a Bayard’s bun, horse bread, id. i. 15, l. 8. Bayard, lit. of a bay colour, O. Prov. baiart, ‘bai; cheval bai’ (Levy).

bayes, ‘baize’. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. v, p. 31. A plural form of bay, bay coloured, reddish-brown. See Dict. (s.v. Baize).

beace, beasts; pl. of beast. Golding, Metam. xv. 13. This is the usual pron. of beast (and beasts) in the north of England. For various spellings—beas, beece, beess, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Beast).

beached, apparently for beeked, i.e. seasoned (as wood) by exposure to heat. ‘A coodgell [cudgel] beached or pilled [peeled] lawfully’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 39; p. 106. Cp. ME. beke: ‘to beke wandes’ (Cath. Angl.), see NED. (s.v. Beek vb.¹ 1 b). See beak.

bead, a prayer, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 872. This is the orig. sense of mod. E. bead; a perforated ball was so called because it was used for counting prayers. ME. bede ‘oracio’ (Prompt.). OE. (ge)bed prayer.

beak, beyk, to expose to the warmth of the fire; to season by heat. ‘Beak ourselves’, Grimald, Metrodorus, 3; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 109. Beyked, seasoned, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 3. See EDD. (s.v. Beek vb. 1 and 2). See beached.

beam, the main trunk of a stag’s horn which bears the antlers, Turbervile, Hunting, 53.

beam, see beme.

beamy, beam-like, massive. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 480; tr. of Aeneid, xii. 641. Cp. 1 Sam. xvii. 7 (massive as a weaver’s beam—the spear of Goliath).

bear (the animal). Are you there with your bears? are you at it again? ‘Explained by Joe Miller as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse’ (NED.). Some think it refers to the bears in a bear-garden; but they do not say why, nor how. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 3 (Silena); Howell, Foreign Travell, p. 20.

bear a brain, to use one’s brains, to be cautious; also, to remember. Romeo, i. 3. 29; Grim the Collier, v. 1. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 457. Cp. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1422.

bear in hand, to lead one to believe, to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences, Meas. for M., i. 4. 51. Hamlet, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Volpone i. 1; ‘I beare in hande, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede, or make hym byleve so’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Barenhond). ME. ‘I bar him on honde he hadde enchanted me’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 575).

bearing. ‘A standing [upright] bearyng bowe,’ Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 79. A bearing arrow seems to have meant an arrow true in its flight (Nares), though it merely meant stout, or strong; probably a bearing bow was a strong and trusty one, one to be relied upon to shoot straight and well. So also bearing dishes, i.e. solid, substantial dishes or viands; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1 (Greedy).

bearing-cloth, the cloth in which a child was carried to the font. Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 119; Beaumont and Fl., Chances, iii. 3 (Landlady).

beast, an obsolete game at cards, resembling the modern ‘Nap’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 1007. See NED. (s.v. Beast, 8).

beaten, orig. hammered; hence, overlaid or inlaid; embroidered. ‘Beaten damask’, Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk).

beath, to dry green wood by placing it near the fire, to season wood by heat. Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 9; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 7. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. bethen (Treatyse of Fysshynge). OE. beÐian, to foment, to warm.

beauperes, fair companions. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 35. OF. beau + per. F. pair, an equal, a peer.

beaver; see bever.

becco, a cuckold. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole); Massinger, Bondman, ii. 3 (Gracculo). Ital. becco, a he-goat, a cuckold (Florio).

beck and bay, at, at some one’s command. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 381. The meaning of the word bay in this phrase is uncertain; it is prob. connected with ME. beien, to bend; OE. (Anglian), bēgan; cp. the phr. buken and beien, Juliana, 27. See EDD. (s.v. Bay, vb.³), and NED. (s.v. Bow, vb.¹ 6, quot. A.D. 1240).

become; ‘I know not where my sonne is become’, i.e. what has become of him, Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Philogano); ed. Hazlitt, i. 251. Once very common.

bed, to pray. Spenser, F. Q., vi. 5. 35. Cp. ME. bede, a prayer. See bead.

bed, to command, to bid; ‘Until his Captaine bed’, until his captain may command, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 41. 3 pr. sing. subj. of ME. beden; OE. bēodan, to command.

bedare, to dare, defy. Peele, David (Salomon); ed. Dyce, p. 484. From dare; see NED. (s.v. Be-, prefix, p. 720).

bed-fere, bed-fellow. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, iii. 542: spelt bedphere, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, ii. 5.

bedlam, a lunatic; one who had been in Bethlehem hospital; the half-cured patients were licensed to beg for alms for their support. Barnes, Works (1572) p. 294, col. 2; Gammer Gurton’s Needle has, for one of its characters, Diccon the Bedlam; Bunyan, Pilgr. i. 123 (NED.); ‘A bedlam, maniacus, insanus, furiosus’, Coles, Lat. Dict. See EDD. (sb.¹ 4).

bedrench, to soak, swamp. Richard II, iii. 3. 46; bedrent, pt. s. Sackville, Induction, st. 21.

bed-staff, ‘a staff or stick used in some way about a bed’ (NED.). The precise sense is uncertain. Often used as a weapon; B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 4 (Bobadil). ‘With throwing bed-staves at her’, Staple of News, v. 1 (Lickfinger).

bee, an armlet, ring. ‘A riche bee of gold’, Morte Arthur, leaf 135 (end); bk. vii, c. 35. The word is still in use in Ireland for a ferule (EDD.). ME. bee, an armlet (Paston Letters, iii. 464). OE. bēah.

beech-coal, charcoal made from beech wood. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

beeld, to ‘build’. Mirror for Magistrates, Emp. Severus, st. 21. Beeld is the pron. of build in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD., The Grammar; Index (s.v. Build).

beer, a pillow. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. iv. 414. See NED. (s.v. Bear, sb.⁴). See pillowbeer.

before me, a form of asseveration. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 194; Oth. iv. 1. 149. Cp. before heaven, Meas. ii. 1. 69; before God, Much Ado, ii. 3. 192.

beg for a fool, to ask for the guardianship of an idiot. The custody of an idiot or witless person could be granted by the king to a subject who had sufficient interest to obtain it. If the ‘fool’ was wealthy, it was a profitable business. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo).

begin, s., a beginning. ‘Of fowr begynns’ (i.e. the four elements), Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 38; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ‘The hard beginne’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 21.

beglerbeg, the governor of an Ottoman province. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie). Turk. begler-beg, bey of beys.

beglarde, for beglaired, smoothed over, as with a cosmetic. Mirror for Magistrates; Guidericus, st. 43. From glair, q.v.

behave, to manage, govern, control. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Timon, iii. 5. 22. OE. behabban, to restrain.

behight (in Spenser). Forms: behight, pres., pt. t., and pp.; behot (behote) pp. Meanings: (1) to promise, Pt. t.: F. Q. iv. 11. 6; Pp.: F. Q. ii. 3. 1; F. Q. i. 11. 38 (behot); (2) to name, call, pronounce, F. Q. i. 10. 64; Pp.: Shep. Kal., April, 120; (3) to order, command, F. Q. vi. 2. 30; Pt. t.: F. Q. ii. 11. 17; (4) to entrust, commit, Pt. t.: F. Q. v. 9. 3; Pp.: F. Q. i. 10. 50; (5) to account, consider, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 1. 44; (6) to adjudge, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 5. 7. The normal ME. forms are: Behote (infin.), behight (pt. t.), behote(n (pp.).

behight, a promise. Surrey, tr. of Psalm lxxiii, l. 60.

beholding, indebted, under obligation. Merry Wives, i. 1. 283; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Pinac). In common prov. use in many parts of England (Midlands, E. Anglia, Somerset). See EDD.

beholdingness, obligation, indebtedness. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (last speech).

bel-accoyle, fair welcome. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. OF. bel acoil, fair welcome. See accoyl.

belamour, a lover. Spenser, F. Q. 6. 16; iii. 10. 22. F. bel amour.

belamy, fair friend. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 52. ME. bel amy (Chaucer, C. T. C. 318). OF. bel ami.

belay, to beset, encompass. Spenser, Sonnet, 14; belayd, pp. set about with ornament; F. Q. vi. 2. 5.

belee, to place on the lee, in a position in which the wind has little influence; ‘Beleed and calmed’, Othello, i. 1. 30.

beleek, belike, probably. Peele, Arr. of Paris, iii. 1 (Mercury); id. Tale of Troy; ed. Dyce, p. 555. See belike.

belgards, amorous glances. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; iii. 10. 52. Ital. bel guardo, fair or kindly look.

belike, perhaps, no doubt (used ironically). Milton, P. L. ii. 156; Two Gent. ii. 1. 85. In common prov. use (EDD.).

belive, quickly. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. bi life, lit. with life or liveliness. See bilive.

bell, to bear the, to take the first place, be the first, be pre-eminent. ‘Win the spurres, and beare the bell’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 1. From the precedence of the bell-wether; see NED.

bellibone, a fair lass. ‘Such a bellibone’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 92. From F. belle et bonne, fair and good girl. See bonnibell.

bells, pl.: in phr. to take one’s bells, used fig., to be ready to fly away. Ford, Sun’s Darling, iii. 1 (Humour). A hawk had light bells fastened to her legs before she flew off, that her flight might be traced.

belly-cheat, an apron. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); ‘A belly-chete, an apern’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83. See backcheat.

belly-cheer, feasting, gluttony. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 114; also, meat, viands; ‘Carrelure de ventre, meat, belly-timber, belly-cheere’, Cotgrave.

belsire, grandfather. Drayton, Pol. viii. 73; beel sire, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 321. 6; bele-fader, id. lf. 344, back, 27; ‘Belsyre, grant pere’, Palsgrave. ME. belsyr, or belfadyr, ‘Avus’ (Prompt.).

beme, a trumpet. Beames (spelt beaumous) pl., Morte Arthur, leaf 423, back, 1; bk. xxi. ch. 4. ME. beme (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1240). OE. (Mercian) bēme.

bemoiled, covered with dirt. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 77. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

bemol, B flat, in the musical scale. In the old sets of hexachords, which began with C, G, or F; it was found necessary, in the hexachord beginning with F, to flatten the note B. The new note, thus introduced into the old scale, was called B-mol or Be-mol, i.e. B soft; from OF. mol, soft; L. mollis. Its symbol was b, later ♭, which afterwards became a general symbol for a flattened note. ‘La, sol, re, Softly bemole’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 533. Also, a half-note; ‘Two beemolls, or halfe-notes’, Bacon, Sylva, § 104.

ben, a cant term for good; ben cove, a good fellow. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat).

ben bouse, a slang term for good drink. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor).

bend (in heraldry), an oblique stripe on a shield. Morte Arthur, leaf 216. 27; bk. x. c. 12; ‘Our bright silver bend’, Drayton, Heroical Epistles, Surrey to Lady Geraldine, 95. The bend is usually the bend dexter, from the dexter chief to the sinister base; the bend sinister slopes the other way.

bend, a band or company. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 32. F. bende (Cotgr.). See NED.

bend, a piece of very thick leather, a piece of sole-leather. ‘A bend of leather’, Heywood, First Part of K. Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i. p. 40. Also, bend-leather (NED.). The words bend, bend-leather, bend of leather, leather bend are in use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bend sb.¹).

bend, to cock a musket, pistol, or other fire-arms. A transferred use, from bending a bow. ‘Like an engyn bent’, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3. 53 [‘With hackbut bent’, Scott, Cadyow Castle, 137]; to direct any weapon (spear, dart, &c.), ‘to bend that mortal dart’, Milton, P. L. ii. 729; ‘so bent his spear’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 34; (figuratively), King Lear, ii. 1. 48.

bene-bouse, benbouse, good drink. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

bene whids, good words; to cut bene whids, to speak good words. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen).

benedicite: phr. under ‘benedicite’ I speak it, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 186). The expression is used by Stubbes, when making a serious charge against the magistrates, as an invocation for deliverance from evil. L. benedicite, bless ye.

benempt, pp. named. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 214. OE. benemned, pp. of benemnan, to name (Matt. ix. 9, Lind.).

benjamin, corruption of benjoin, earlier form of benzoin. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1869, p. 139).

benome, benoom, to deprive. Spelt benome, Mirror for Mag., Somerset, st. 9; benoom, id. Buckingham, st. 15. Benome due to pret. forms of OE. beniman (nōm, sing.; nōmon, pl.).

bent, a grassy slope. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 544 (from Chaucer, C. T. A. 1981); Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, XX. 9. Still in use in this sense in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bent, II. 3).

benting times, scarce times, times when pigeons have no food but bent-grass. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1283.

bepounced, ornamented. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 454. See pounce.

beray, to defile, befoul; ‘Berayde with blots’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 241 (p. 56); Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Firestone); ‘It’s an ill bird that berays its own nest’, Ray’s Proverbs (A.D. 1678); Palsgrave; Sherwood.

berew, in a row; ‘Mock them all berew’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 246. See rewe.

bergomask, a rustic dance. Mids. Night’s D. v. 360. Ital. bergamasca, ‘sorta di ballo composto tutto di salti e capriole’ (Fanfani); Bergamasco, belonging to Bergamo, a province in the state of Venice. The inhabitants were ridiculed as being clownish in manners.

berlina, a pillory. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 8 (1 Avoc.). Ital. berlina, ‘a pillorie’ (Florio). Med. Lat. berlina (Ducange).

Bermoothes, the Bermudas. Temp. i. 2. 229. See Burmoothes.

berne, a herb; ‘The iuyce of Berne or wylde Cresseys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 8; p. 21. F. berle, Med. L. berula, the water-pimpernel, see Gerarde, p. 621. See Prompt. EETS. (s.v. Bellerne, note no. 176).

†berry, an error for bevy, i.e. a number; ‘A berry of fair roses’, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 322. Cp. ‘A Beuy of Roos’, Book of St. Albans, fol. f 6.

beryels, a tomb. Morte Arthur, leaf 141, back, 7; bk. viii. c. 6 (end); spelt buryels, id. leaf 233, back, 23; bk. x. c. 32. OE. byrgels. See Dict. (s.v. Burial).

besant, besaunte, a gold coin of Byzantium. Morte Arthur, leaf 78. 15; bk. iv. c. 26. It varied in value from half a sovereign to a sovereign. See Dict.

bescumber, to befoul. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 34; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. (Tibullus); Staple of News, v. 2; Comical History of Francion (Nares); spelt bescummer, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. The word bescummer, to besmear with dirt, fig. to abuse, calumniate, is in obsolescent use in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See scumber.

beseen: in phr. well beseen; spelt well bisene, Morte Arthur, leaf 22, back, 32; bk. i. c. 8; well beseene, well furnished, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 180; ‘I am besene, I am well or yvell apareyled’, Palsgrave.

besgue, stammering. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 271. 5. OF. besgue (F. bÈgue).

besides himself, all by himself, alone. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 1 (Violetta).

besit, to suit, befit. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; besitting, befitting, id. iv. 2. 19; ‘It well besits’, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 227. Cp. use of F. seoir, to sit, also, to fit, suit, sit properly on (Hatzfeld).

beslurry, to sully all over; ‘All beslurried’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 32. Prov. E. slurry, to soil, bedaub (EDD).

beso las manos, a kissing of hands; lit. ‘I kiss your hands’, a common Spanish salutation to a lady. Massinger, Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Calandrino).

besogno, a needy fellow (a term of contempt). B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 2 (Asotus). See bisogno.

bespawl, to bespatter with saliva. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); ‘Foam bespawled beard’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 440. OE. spāld (spādl, spāÐl, spātl), saliva.

besprint, besprinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 111. Also besprent, bespreint. OE. besprenged, pp. of besprengan, to sprinkle.

bestead, pp. ill bestedded, ill helped, in a bad plight. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 3; ill bestad, id. ii. 1. 52; strangely bestad, strangely beset or placed, id. iii. 10. 54; bestad, treated, id. vi. 6. 18; circumstanced, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 23. See Dict.

bestraught, distracted. Tam. Shrew, Induction, ii. 26. L. distractus gave distract and distraught on the analogy of ME. straught, pp. of strecchen, to stretch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 599); hence the forms bestraught, astraught. See NED. (s.v. Bestraught).

betake, to commit, consign, deliver, hand over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 25; vi. 11. 51; pt. t. betook, id. iii. 6. 28; pp. betake, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 62; fol. B ij. ME. bitaken; ‘Ich bitake min soule God’ = I commit my soul to God (Rob. Glouc. 475).

be-tall, to pay; ‘What is to be-tall, what there is to pay; the amount of the reckoning’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the West, ii. 1 (Clem); with a quibble on to be tall. Du. betalen, to pay (Hexham).

beteem, to grant, bestow, concede, indulge with. Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 131; Hamlet, i. 2. 141; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 19. A Gloucestershire word (EDD.). Cp. ME. temen, to offer or dedicate (to God), Cursor M. 6170; see NED. (s.v. Teem, vb.¹ 7).

betight, pp. for betid or betided; happened. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 174.

betso, a small Venetian coin; worth about a farthing. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Bravo). Ital. bezzo, a small brass coin in Venice (Florio).

bett, better. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 15. OE. bet, adv. better.

beurn, for berne, a warrior. Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 54; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ME. burne, a man (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 163). OE. beorn, a brave man.

bever, the lower part of the moveable front of a helmet. Bacon, Essay 35, § 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 31; beaver, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 120; Hen. V. iv. 2. 44. F. ‘BaviÈre d’un armet, the beaver of a helmet’ (Cotgr.).

bever, a short intermediate repast. A supper, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii, l. 10 from end. Bever is in prov. use in many parts of England in the sense of a slight refreshment taken between meals, either at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. (EDD.). Norm. F. bever, ‘boire’ (Moisy); cp. Mod. Prov. grand-bÉure, ‘petit repas que les moissonneurs font vers 10 heures du matin’ (Glossaire, MirÈio).

bever, to tremble. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 4; bk. i, c. 15. Bever (biver), to tremble, is in common prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).

bewaile, to lament over; ‘An hidden rock . . . That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 31. The meaning seems to be: the rock lay in wait so that she would have to bewail her wreck.

beware, to spend, bestow money. Wel bywaryd, well bestowed. Morte Arthur, leaf 123, back, 18; bk. vii, c. 21. Cp. prov. word ware, to spend, to lay out money (EDD.). ME. waryn, ‘mercor’ (Prompt.).

bewared, made to beware, put on one’s guard. Dryden, Cock and Fox, 799.

bewet, buet, a ring or slip of leather for attaching a bell to a hawk’s leg. ‘The letheris that be putt in his bellis, to be fastyned a-boute his leggys, ye shall calle Bewettis’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. B 6; ‘That, hauing hood, lines, buets, bels of mee,’ Turbervile, To a fickle Dame, 2. Dimin. of OF. buie, bue, boie, a bond, chain, fetter. L. boia, sing. of boiae, a collar.

bezoar’s stone, for bezoar-stone, a supposed antidote to poison. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). See Dict.

bezonian, needy beggar, rascal. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 115; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 134; spelt bisognion, Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 1. 13; see Dict. See bisogno.

bezzle, to besot, stupefy, to drink immoderately. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole). ‘To bezzle, pergraecor’, Coles, Dict. Hence, bezeling, tippling, Marston, Scourge, ii. 7. In prov. use in the sense of drinking immoderately, in various parts of England; see EDD. (s.v. Bezzle, vb.¹ 2). Norm. F. ‘besiller, s’user, s’Épuiser, se perdre, dÉpÉrir’ (Moisy). See Ducange (s.v. Besilium).

bias, from the, out of the way, off the track. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Hodge). Prov. biais, ‘maniÈre, faÇon’; de biais, ‘obliquement’ (Levy).

bibble, bible, to drink frequently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 478; Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 550. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

bidcock, a bird; said to be the water-rail. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 100.

biddell, a beadle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 28. OE. bydel.

bidene, in one body or company, together, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 268 (NED.); straightway, at once, forthwith, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 956; Douglas, Aeneid, I. ii. 33 (NED.). Often used in Scottish poetry as a rime word, or to fill up the line, or as a mere expletive, see EDD. (s.v. Bedene). Cp. ME. phrase all(e bidene, continuously, one after another (Cursor M. 1457); in one body, all together (Ormulum, 4793).

bid-stand, a highwayman. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Sogliardo). Because he bids men stand and deliver.

bienvenu, benvenu, a welcome. A Woman never vext, v. 1 (King); Massinger, The Picture, ii. 2. 4. F. bienvenuË, a welcome (Cotgr.).

big, a pap or teat. Tusser, Husbandry, 74; Shadwell Witches (EDD.), Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xviii. ch. 7; ‘Bigge, a country word for a pap or teat’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See EDD.

big, a boil, small tumour. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxxii. ch. 9; Gaule Cases Consc. 6 (NED.).

biggin, a child’s cap. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 5 (Mosca); Proverb, ‘From the biggen to the nightcap’ (i.e. from infancy to old age), B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Haughty); the saying is still in use in Cornwall (EDD.). F. ‘beguin, a biggin for a child’ (Cotgr.).

biggon, a barrister’s cap. Mayne, City Match, iv. 7 (Aurelia).

bilander, a coasting vessel, a by-lander. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 128. Du. bijlander.

bilbo, a sword of excellent quality. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 112. Hence, one who wears a bilbo, id. i. 1. 165. From Bilbao (E. Bilboa) in Spain.

bilboes, pl., an iron bar, with sliding shackles, for securing prisoners. Hamlet, v. 2. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 2 (near the end). Perhaps from Bilbao; see above.

bilive, soon, quickly. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lord). See belive.

bilk, a statement having nothing in it. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Tub); a cheat, a fraud, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 376.

bill, an advertisement. Much Ado, i. 1. 39; B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1. 1; a doctor’s prescription, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 603.

billed, pp. enrolled. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antony, § 3 (Shak. Plut. p. 157, note 3).

billiments, pl., habiliments, apparel. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); billements, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). Short for habiliments.

bill-men, watchmen, armed with a pike or halbert. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

bind with, to grapple with, seize; said of a hawk. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo).

bing, to go. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. I (Song); bynge a waste, go you hence, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; bing awast, go away, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

bird-bolt, a short blunt arrow, usually shot from a cross-bow at birds. Much Ado, i. 1. 42; L. L. L. iv. 3. 25.

birle, to pour out liquor. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 269; Levins Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. byrle (Cath. Angl.); OE. byrlian, to give to drink; byrel, a cup-bearer.

bisa, bise, a north wind. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1339); p. 134, col. 2. F. bise, a north wind (Cotgr.). O. Prov. biza, ‘bise, nord’ (Levy).

bisogno, bisognio, a needy fellow, a term of contempt. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Alguazier); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i. (Lysander). Ital. bisogni, pl. new-levied soldiers, needy men; bisogno, need, want. Cp. bezonian.

bitched, a term of opprobrium; ‘Bitched brothel’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254.

bite on the bridle, to be impatient of restraint. Gascoigne, i. 449, l. 25.

bitter, bittour, a bittern. Bitter, Middleton, Triumph of Love, ed. Dyce, v. 289; bittour, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 89; Dryden, Wife of Bath’s Tale, 194; Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bitore (Chaucer, C. T. D. 972); OF. butor, a bittern (Hatzfeld).

bizzle, to become drunk, to drink to excess. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Matheo). See bezzle.

black: phr. black is your eye. To say ‘black is your eye’, to find fault with one, to lay something to his charge. ‘I can say, black’s your eye, though it be grey’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier); ‘black’s mine eye’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

black guard, orig. a jocular name given to the lower menials of a noble house, esp. those who had charge of kitchen utensils, and carried them about when required; ‘A lousy slave, that within this twenty years rode with the black guard in the duke’s carriage [i.e. among his baggage], ’mongst spits and dripping-pans’, Webster, White Devil, ed. Dyce, p. 8; Fletcher, Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo).

black jack, a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Savil); Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo).

black-mack, a blackbird; ‘A leane birde of the kind of blacke-mackes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 34; ‘Merula, a birde called a black-mack, an owzell, a mearle, or black-bird’, Florio.

black ox; ‘The Black Ox has trod on his foot, he has fallen on misfortune or sorrow’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 1; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 112). See Nares, and EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

black-pot, a beer-mug; hence, a toper. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (scene 5, W.), at the end; p. 160, col. 2 (D.).

blacks, mourning clothes. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Francisco); Maid in a Mill, iv. 2 (Bustopha); Bacon, Essay 2; Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 1 (Charalois); Herrick, Hesperides, 379. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. Black, sb.¹ 4).

Black Sanctus, or Black Saunce; see Sanctus.

blanch, to give a fair appearance to by artifice or suppression of the truth. Bacon, Essays 20 and 26; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 222; Od. xi. 492; Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 37).

blanch (a hunting term), to ‘head back’ the deer in his flight. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 1. 231. Hence blancher, a person or thing placed to turn the deer from a particular direction; Sydney, Arcadia, 64; fig. a hinderer, Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 33 and 36). Blanch still used by huntsmen in Somerset and Devon in this sense (EDD.). See blencher.

blank, the white spot in the centre of a target; now, bull’s eye. Hamlet, iv. 1. 42; at twelve-score blank, at a range of twelve score yards, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Sophocles).

blank, a blank bond, to be filled up at pleasure. Beaumont and Fl., i. 1 (Arbaces). Also, a small French coin, orig. of silver, but afterwards of copper, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez).

blank, to render pale, to blanch. Hamlet, iii. 2. 232; to dismay, Milton, Samson Ag. 471; blanck, disappointed, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 17.

blatant, blattant, bellowing. Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 37, 41; Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 230. ‘Blate’, to bellow, is in prov. use (EDD.).

blaze, a white mark on an animal’s forehead; (on a black bull), Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. Still in prov. use, esp. Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Blaze, sb.² 1).

blazing star, a comet. All’s Well, i. 3. 91; Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Sir Alex.).

bleaking-house, bleaching-house. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iv. 2 (Savourwit). ME. blekyn, blechen clothe (Prompt.).

blear, dim, indistinct, in outline. Milton, Comus, 155.

blear: phr. to blear the eyes, to deceive, throw dust in the eyes. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; ‘He is nat in Englande that can bleare his eye better than I can’, Palsgrave.

bleat (meaning obscure); ‘How the judges have bleated him!’, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Julia).

bleater, a sheep. (Cant.) Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

blee, colour, complexion, hue. Morte Arthur, leaf 88, back, 32; bk. v. c. 10; Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 100). Occurs in ballad poetry in the north (EDD.). ME. blee (York Plays, xxviii. 259), OE. blēo.

blemish, ‘When they [the huntsmen] find where a deare hath passed and breake or plashe any boughe downewardes for a marke, then we say, they blemish or make blemishes’, Turbervile, Hunting, 244.

blemishes, ‘The markes which are left to knowe where a deare hath gone in or out’, Turbervile, Hunting, 114.

blench, a side glance, glimpse; ‘These blenches gave my heart another youth’, Sh. Sonn. cx. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

blench, to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4. ME. blenchen (Anc. Riwle, 242).

blencher, a person stationed to ‘head hack’ the deer, to prevent him from going in a particular direction. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 1 (Sanchio); spelt bleinchers, pl., scarecrows, things put up to frighten animals away, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 70, 192; ‘which some call shailes, some blenchars, . . to feare away birdes’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2. See blanch.

blend, to blind, to dazzle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 35; blent, pp., F. Q. ii. 4. 7; rendered obscure, Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 521; yblent, F. Q. ii. 7. 1.

blend, to mix, confuse, render turbid, disturb, pollute. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; blent, pp. defiled, F. Q. ii. 12. 7.

blenge, to blend, mix. Tusser, Husbandry, § 100. 3. A ‘portmanteau’ word; combination of blend and menge, to mingle.

blenkard, one who blinks, or has imperfect sight or intelligence. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 610. A north-country pronunc. of blinkard (EDD.).

blent; see blend.

bless, to wound, hurt; ‘When he did levell to shoote, he blessed himselfe with his peece’, Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 237. F. blesser, to wound (Cotgr.), Anglo-F. blecer (Ch. Rol.).

bless, to preserve, save. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 18; iv. 6. 13.

bless, to brandish (a sword), to wave about. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 6; i. 8. 22; vi. 8. 13; to brandish round an object with a weapon, ‘His armed head with his sharpe blade he blest’, Fairfax, Tasso, ix. 67.

blewe point, a blue point, or blue-tagged lace; ‘Not worth a blewe point’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 9. See point.

blin, blinn, to cease, leave off. Turbervile, Poems, in Chalmers’s Eng. Poets, II, 589; to cause to cease, to put a stop to, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 22. Very common in northern ballad poetry (EDD.). ME. blinnen, to cease (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1171); to cause to cease, Towneley Myst. 133. OE. blinnan, to cease. See lin.

blince, (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ‘blench’; ‘The which will not blince’ riming with prince, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 148.

blindfeld, blindfolded. Spelt blyndefeld, Morte Arthur, leaf 69, back; bk. iv. c. 15; blyndfielde, R. Eden, First Three Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 347, l. 7 from bottom. ‘I blyndefelde one’, Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Blindfold).

blinkard, ‘He that hath such eies that the liddes cover a great parte of the apple’, Baret (1580); ‘a blinkard, caeculus, paetus, strabus’, Coles (1679). Still in use in Northumberland and Lancashire (EDD.).

blive, quickly, soon, immediately. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 18; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. l. 294. See belive.

blo, bloo, livid, esp. used of the colour caused by a bruise. Bloo and wan, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 141, l. 5; id. Magnyfycence, 2080. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). ME. blo(o, ‘lividus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 195). Icel. blā, livid.

bloat, blote, to smoke-dry (herrings); ‘Fumer, to bloat, besmoake, hang or drie in the smoake’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Island Princess, ii. 5 (1 Citizen). Hence, bloat-herring, a smoked herring, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom); Pepys, Diary (Oct. 5, 1661). A Suffolk word (EDD.).

block, a mould for a hat; a fashion of hat. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham); Much Ado, i. 1. 77.

blonk, fair, blond; said of hair. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270. 13. See NED. (s.v. Blank).

blore, a blast of wind. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 122; ix. 5; xiv. 330. ME. blore (York Plays, xxvi. 188).

blot in the tables, an exposed piece or ‘man’ in the game of backgammon, liable to be taken; hence, a weak point. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Gerardine); Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276. See Dict. (s.v. Blot (2)).

blother, to gabble nonsense; to babble. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1049; Colyn Cloute, 779. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Blather, vb.¹). Icel. blaÐra, to talk indistinctly, to talk nonsense.

blow-boll, one who ‘blows in a bowl’, an habitual tippler. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23; l. 25.

blowen, a wench, a trull. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). [Cp. blowing, in Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 19.]

blow-point, a game ‘played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery’, Strutt (quoted in NED.). Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 224; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 2 (Anamnestes); Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Leonardo). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 531.

blue, the usual colour of the dress of servants, or of beadles. Blue-coat, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). The blue order, i.e. of servants, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Onion). Women condemned to Bridewell wore blue gowns, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Luke); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 1 (Lodovico).

blue-bottle rogue, a term applied to a beadle, with reference to his blue uniform. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 22.

blunket, blonket, grey, greyish blue. ‘Bloncket liveries’, glossed by ‘gray coats’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 5.

blurt, an exclamation of contempt, pish!, pooh!; ‘Blurt, Master Constable’, the title of a play by Middleton, Dekker, Honest Wh., i. 5 (Fluello); to treat contemptuously, Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, ii. 2 (last speech).

blushet (only used by B. Jonson), a little blusher, a modest girl, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy senior); The Penates (Pan).

board, bord, to accost, address. Hamlet, ii. 2. 171; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 92; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 5; boorded, addressed, id. ii. 4. 24. F. aborder, to approach, accost (Cotgr.) A metaph. expression from boarding a ship; see Nares.

board, bord, a shilling. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); a bord, a shylling; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bob, a blow that does not break the skin, a rap; ‘Pinches, nippes and bobbes’, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 47); a taunt, a bitter jibe, As You Like It, ii. 7. 55; Wycherley, Dancing-master, i. 2 (Monsieur); ‘Ruade seiche, a drie bob, jeast or nip’, Cotgrave. ‘Bob’, in the sense of a slight blow, is in prov. use in the Midlands and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, sb.² 1).

bob, to fish (for eels) with a bob, or grub for bait. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, ii. 4. 9. In use in the Norfolk Broads, see NED. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁴), and EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁶ 1).

bob, to deceive, cheat. Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 75; ‘Avoir le moine, to be gleekt, bobbed’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (Bartolus); Little French Lawyer, ii. 1. 24. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁵). OF. bober.

bodkin; see baudkin.

bodrag, a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly bodrags’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 315. Hence bodraging, misspelt bordraging, the same; F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish buaidhreadh, molestation, disturbance; buaidhr-im, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).

bog, proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37. st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. boggisshe, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 161).

boggard, a privy, latrina. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iv. 6 (end).

boistous, busteous, bousteous, rough, rustic, coarse, violent, vigorous. Bousteous tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth all Things, st. 7. Boystous, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. boystows, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).

boll, a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence bolled, having ‘bolls’, pods; Bible, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.²).

boll, to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence boller, one who lingers at the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.

bollen, swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. boln); bolne, Hawes, Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; bowlne, id. ii. 348. Cp. the E. Anglian bown, swollen (EDD.). ME. bollen, swollen (Cursor M. 12685). Icel. bÓlgna; Dan. bolne, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell, vb.¹).

bolt, an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also gen. an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4. 24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).

bonnibell, a fair lass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., August, 62; B. Jonson, The Satyr, l. 21. From F. bonne et belle, good and fair girl. See bellibone.

bonny-clabber, sour buttermilk. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2. 8. ‘Bonny-clabber’ in Ireland means thick milk. Irish bainne [pronounc. bonny], milk, and clabair, anything thick or half-liquid. In use in the United States wherever Irishmen forgather. See Joyce, English in Ireland, 219.

bookholder, a prompter in a theatre. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induct.

books: phr. to be in a person’s books; ‘I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books’, Much Ado, i. 1. 179 (the probable meaning is, he is not in favour, not in the lady’s ‘book of memory’, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 101).

boon, good; esp. in French phrases. ‘On a boon voyage’, Conflict of Conscience; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 63. ‘Nature boon’, Milton, P. L. iv. 242; cp. ix. 793.

boord, bord; see board, and bourd.

boot-carouse, a carousing out of a bombard or black-jack, which was likened to a boot. Marston, Sat., ii. 154.

boot-hale, to carry off booty. Heywood, Sallust, 33. Hence, boot-haler, a freebooter, highwayman, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (J. Dapper); Holland, Livy, xxii. 41. 458; boot-haling, the carrying away of booty, Florio, Montaigne, ii. 31; Fletcher, The Chances, i. 4 (Frederic); Maid in the Mill, ii. 2 (Antonio).

booty: in phr. to play booty, to play so as to lose, in order to draw the opponent on, and get some ‘booty’ in the end’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 7; Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Frankford). Also, to bowl booty, to play at bowls so as to lose at first, Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. See Nares.

borachio, a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain (borracha). B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer); Greene, Looking Glasse (Works, ed. 1861, 133); fig. a drunkard, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1. 7. Span. borracho, a drunkard.

bord, rim, circumference. ‘He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). The reference is to a barber’s basin. F. bord, edge, border.

bordello, a brothel. B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 1 (Knowell). Ital. ‘bordello, a bawdy-house’ (Florio).

bordon, a staff. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 132, back, 24. ME. bordun, a pilgrim’s staff (P. Plowman, A. vi. 8). F. bourdon (Cotgr.). O. Prov. bordon, bÂton de pÈlerin.

bordraging; see bodrag.

bore, to trick, cheat, overreach. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 128; Life T. Cromwell, ii. 2. 103 (NED.).

boree, bouree, a rustic dance, orig. of Auvergne. Etheridge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). F. bourrÉe (Hatzfeld).

borrel, unlearned, rude, rough, rustic. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 95; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 28. ME. borel, in Chaucer: coarse woollen clothes, C. T. D. 356; borel men, laymen, C. T. B. 3145.

borrow, borow, a pledge, surety. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 131, 150; ‘Dear Pan bought with dear borrow’, id. Sept., 96. ME. borwe, a surety (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2998). OE. borh (borge) a pledge, surety.

borrow, to give security for, to assure, warrant. Greene, Isabel’s Ode, 33; ed. Dyce, p. 296.

bosky, full of thickets. Peele, Chron. Edw. I (ed. 1874, p. 407); Tempest, iv. 1. 81; Milton, Comus, 312. A Cheshire and Yorkshire word, from bosk, an underwood thicket (EDD.). ME. boske, a bush.

boss, a fat woman, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Zenocrate); ‘A fat boss, femme bien grasse et grosse, une Coche’, Sherwood. A Lancashire word for a fat lazy woman, see EDD. (s.v. Boss, sb.¹ 6).

bosse, supposed to mean a water-conduit; esp. used of the Bosse of Billingsgate, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see Title of the Play); B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Eyes); ‘Bosse Alley, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water continually running, which standeth by Billingsgate against this alley’, Stow, Survey (ed. 1842, p. 79). See NED. (s.v. Boss, sb.²).

botcher, a mender of old clothes; or (disrespectfully) a tailor. All’s Well, iv. 3. 211; Cor. ii. 1. 93; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 1 (Fortune).

bottom of packthread, a ball of string. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv, 4 (Brainworm); Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 138. Properly the clew or nucleus on which the ball was wound. [‘I wish I could wind up my bottom handsomely’, Sir W. Scott, Diary, March 17, 1826.] See EDD. (s.v. Bottom, 8). ME. botme of threde (Prompt.).

bouche: in phr. bouche in court, an allowance of victual granted by a king or noble to his household; ‘A good allowance of dyet, a bouche in court, as we use to call it’, Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, 70). F. avoir bouche À Court, ‘to eat and drinke scotfree, to have budge-a-Court, to be in ordinarie at Court’ (Cotgr.). See bouge.

bouffage, a satisfying meal. ‘No bouffage, but a light bit’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 9. F. bouffage, ‘any meat that (eaten greedily) fills the mouth and makes the cheeks to swell; cheek-puffing meat’ (Cotgr.). F. bouffer, to swell.

bouge, to flinch. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 44; boudge, Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius). See Dict. (s.v. Budge (1)).

bouge, to ‘bilge’, to stave in a ship’s side; intr., to suffer fracture, as a ship. ‘My barke was boug’d’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 44. ‘Least thereupon Our shippe should bowge’, Gascoigne, Voyage into Holland, ed. Hazlitt, i. 390. See NED. See Dict. (s.v. Bilge).

bouge, provisions; ‘A bombard man, that brought bouge for a country lady’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin).

bouget, a budget, wallet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 29; a water-vessel of skin, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt, iv. 72. F. bougette (Cotgr.); dimin. of OF. bouge, a water-skin; cp. ME. bowge, ‘I am maad as a bowge in frost’ (Wyclif, Ps. cxix. 83). See Dict. (s.v. Budget).

bough-pot, a flower-pot, a vase for boughs or cut flowers. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Rhoderique). A Lincolnsh. and Northamptonsh. word (EDD.).

bought, a twist, a knot. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2. 13; used of the coil of a serpent, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 255. ‘Bought’ is in prov. use in the north country for a curve or bend; the curve of the elbow or knee. See EDD. (s.v. Bought, sb.¹ 1).

bounty, goodness in general, worth, virtue; ‘He is only the true and essential Bounty’, Drummond of Hawthornden, Cypress Grove (Wks. ed. 1711, p. 127); bountie, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 4; ‘A lovely lasse, Whose beauty doth her bounty far surpasse’, F. Q. iii. 9. 4; ‘Large was his bounty and his soul sincere’, Gray, Elegy, 121 (The Epitaph). ME. bountee, goodness (Chaucer. An A.B.C., 9). F. bontÉ ‘goodness, honesty, sincerity, vertue, uprightness’ (Cotgr.); L. bonitas, goodness (Vulgate).

bourd, bord, a jest. Drayton, Eclogue, vii. 208; bord, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 19; iv. 4. 13. F. bourde, ‘a jeast, fib, tale of a tub’ (Cotgr.).

bourd, to jest. Ford, ’Tis pity, ii. 4 (Peggio).

bourd, to accost. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid iv, l. 899. See board.

bourdel, a brothel. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii. 2. 4. See bordello.

bout, bowt, a coil; a circuit, orbit. Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Iopas, 45; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 94. See bought.

boute-feu, a fire-brand, incendiary. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 66, l. 13; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 786. F. boute-feu, ‘a boute-feu, a wilful or voluntary firer of houses; also, a fire-brand of sedition, a kindler of strife and contention’ (Cotgr.).

bout-hammer, a heavy two-handed hammer. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 4 (Pergamus). For about-hammer, the largest hammer employed by blacksmiths; it is slung round (or about) near the extremity of the handle. An East Anglian word (EDD.).

bouzing-ken, drinking-house, ale-house. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bovoli, snails, cockles; considered as delicacies. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. bovolo (pl. bovoli), ‘a snayle, a cockle, periwinkle’ (Florio).

bowd, a weevil, malt-worm. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 39; ‘A boude, vermis frumentarius’, Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bowde, malte-worme (Prompt.). An East Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Boud).

bow-dye, a scarlet dye; name from Bow, near Stratford, Essex, where the dyers mostly lived, in the 17th cent. Hence, as attrib., ‘My bowdy stockings’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Prue).

bowerly, comely, portly, ‘burly’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 8. In common use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym. (s.v. Burly).

bow-hand, the hand that holds the bow, the left hand. In phr. wide o’ th’ bow-hand, wide of the mark (towards the left); L. L. L. iv. 1. 135; much o’ th’ bow-hand, Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iv. 2 (end); Coxcomb, i. 3. 2.

bowlne, swollen. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 348. See bollen.

bowne, a bound, limit. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v. ch. 23. st. 45. In the same, st. 1 ‘the former bowne’ seems to mean ‘the preceding chapter’. Norm. Fr. bowne (bodne), ‘limite’ (Moisy). Cp. Med. Lat. bonna, bodina (Ducange).

bowne, a boon, a favour in answer to a request. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 45; Adam Bel, 509, in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, ii. 160. Icel. bōn, a prayer.

bowrs, bowers, muscles that bend the joints, strong muscles. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 12. Lit. bow-er, i.e. that which bows or bends; see NED.

box-keeper, the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming-table; ‘Gettall, a box-keeper’, Massinger, City Madam (Dramatis Personae).

boyn, to swell. ‘Her heeles behind boynd out’, Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603). Cp. boine, bunny, Essex words for a swelling caused by a blow (EDD.). OF. buyne (now bigne); see Hatzfeld.

brabble, to wrangle, quarrel, Coles, Dict. (1679); brabble, a quarrel, brawl, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 69; Titus And. ii. 1. 62; hence, brabbler, a quarreller, King John, v. 2. 162; brabbling, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel); ‘Noe more brabbling with him’ (your old Glasier), Dorothy Wadham, Letter (1614), in T. G. Jackson’s Wadham College (1893, p. 161). Du. ‘brabbelen, to brawle or to brabble’ (Hexham).

brace, to gird, encompass. ‘Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 124. OF. bracier, to embrace, deriv. of brace, the two arms (Ch. Rol., 1343).

bracer, braser, a protection for the arm in archery. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 108, 109.

brach, a bitch-hound. Properly a kind of hunting-dog; but it came to be used with reference to a bitch in general. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (Belgarde); King Lear, i. 4. 125. OF. brac, hunting-dog (Didot). OHG. bracco (Schade).

brachet, a small hunting-dog. Morte Arthur, leaf 52, back, 22; bk. iii, c. 5. F. ‘brachet, a kind of little hound’ (Cotgr.).

brachygraphy, shorthand, stenography. B. Jonson, Paris Anniversary (Fencer); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Sanitonella). Gk. βραχυγραφία.

brack, salt water. Only in Drayton, Pol. xxv. 50; Agincourt, 185 (NED.). Du. brak, briny, brackish.

brack, a breach, fracture, Oxford City Records, 387; ‘Breche, a brack or breach in a wall’, Cotgrave; a flaw, fault, ‘A brack, vitium’, Coles, Dict. (1679); Digby, On the Soul, Dedic. (Johnson); a flaw in cloth, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 33); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 249; a rupture, a quarrel, Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, v. 1 (Byron).

brag, brisk, lively. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 11; ‘the bragge lambs’, G. Fletcher, Christ’s Victory, i (NED.).

braid, a sudden or brisk movement. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Marcella). ME. brayd: ‘She (Dido) walketh, walweth, maketh many a brayd’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W., 1166); OE. bregdan, to move suddenly to and fro.

braid, a sudden outburst of passion, anger. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vii, ch. 37, st. 105; a sudden assault, Golding, Metam., xiii. 240; an adroit turn, trick, deception, Greene, Radagon in Dianam, 62 (ed. Dyce, 302); (?) deceitful, All’s Well, iv. 2. 73.

braided; braided ware, goods that have changed colour, tarnished, faded. Marston, Scourge Villainie, Sat. v. 73 (cp. Bailey’s Dict., 1721; see NED.).

brail, in hawking, to confine a hawk’s wings by means of a brail, or soft leather girdle; ‘They brail and hud us’ [confine and hood us], Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 9 (Flavia). OF. brail, braiel, a girdle. Med. L. bracale, deriv. of bracae, breeches (Ducange).

brake, a powerful bit for horses. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Cent.).

brake, to set one’s face in a brake, to assume an immovable expression of countenance. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Bussy).

brame, longing, desire. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 52. Ital. brama, earnest desire; from bramare, to desire. Cp. O. Prov. ‘bramar, braire, dÉsirer ardemment’ (Levy), F. bramer (Hatzfeld).

branched, adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery, &c.; ‘Branched velvet’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Frank).

branded, brindled; of mixed colour, streaked. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad, xii. 217. A common prov. word (EDD.).

brandenburg, a morning gown, with long sleeves. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. 1 (Olivia). From Brandenburg, in Germany, where there were woollen manufactories.

brandle, to shake, endanger, cause to waver. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 155. F. branler. See brangle.

brandlet, a bird; prob. the brand-tail or redstart. Gascoigne, Prol. to Philomene, 31. See EDD. (s.v. Brand-tail).

brand-wine, brandy. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (Clause). Du. brande-wijn, brandy, lit. burnt (i.e. distilled) wine.

brangle, to shake, cause to waver; hence, to render uncertain, to confuse. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 6. F. branler. Cp. brandle.

brank, buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

bransle, a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘bransle, a brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’ (Cotgr.). Cp. brawl.

brant, steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). OE. (Anglian) brant.

brasell; see brazil.

brast, to burst. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 2, § 2; Douglas, Eneados, iv. 81; pt. t., Sir T. More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 74); Bunyan, Pilg. Pr. (ed. 1678, p. 73). In common prov. use in the north (EDD.). ME. breste(n (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1008). OE. berstan.

brathel, a malignant scold. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 60. See brothel.

brave, finely arrayed; showy, splendid; fine, excellent. Tam. Shrew, Ind., i. 40; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); ‘Brave, splendidus’, Levins, Manip.; As You Like It, iii. 4. 43. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

brawl, a French dance. L. L. L. iii. 9; the figure is fully described in Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Guerrino). See bransle.

brawn-fall’n, having arms from which the muscle has fallen away. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 77; Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 127.

braye, a brae, a steep bank; ‘Agaynste a rocke or an hye braye’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 159. ‘Bray’ is still in use in Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Brae). Icel. brā, eyebrow, see NED.

braye, a military outwork, a mound or bank defended by palisades and watch-towers. Act 4 Hen. VIII. 1. § 1 (NED.). False braye, an advanced parapet surrounding the main rampart, Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. Prol. F. faulses brayes, ‘issues qui doivent Être bouchÉes, dans une place forte, quand l’ennemi approche’, Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais, iii. Prol. Norm. F. faulses brayes, ‘espÈce de muraille, Établie en dehors d’une forteresse et servant de retranchement’ (Moisy). Med. L. braca, ‘moles, agger’ (Ducange).

brazil, brasell, a hard wood which yields a red dye. Davenant, The Wits, i. 1. 9; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 133). In popular use in the Yorksh. phrase, ‘As hard as brazzil’, see EDD. (s.v. Brazil, sb.¹). Port. and Span. brasil. The country in S. America is named from this wood (NED.).

break: phr. to break one’s day, to fail to make a payment on the day appointed. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Prud.).

break up, to break open; to open a letter. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 13; Merch. Ven. ii. 4. 10. Also, to carve, L. L. L. iv. 1. 56.

breast, the source of the voice, the voice in singing. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 20; Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 6 (Fool); G. Herbert, The Temper, p. 47.

breathe: phr. to breathe a vein, to open a vein by lancing it. Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, st. 12; Georgics, iii. 700; Palamon, iii. 755.

breathely, worthless. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 36. Cp. ME. brethel(l, a worthless fellow (York Plays, xxvi. 179). See NED.

breck, a breach, gap. Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 16 (p. 40). A north-country word (EDD.). ME. brekke (Chaucer, Bk. Duch., 940).

breme, fierce, stormy; ‘Breme winter’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 42; ‘Froid, cold, breame, chill’, Cotgrave; Drayton, Heroic. Epist., xvi. 8. ME. breme (Lydgate, Chron. Troy, ii. 16). Still in use in the north country (EDD.). Cp. OE. brēman, to rage: broeman ‘fervere’, in Preface Lind. Matthew (ed. Skeat, p. 5, l. 5).

breme. Of reports, loudly prevalent; ‘In their talke most breeme Was then Achilles victorie’, Golding, Met. xii. 280. OE. brēme, famous, celebrated.

brended, brindled. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Puppy). See brinded.

brenne, to burn. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 45; pt. t. brent, id. i. 9. 10; pp. brent, id. ii. 6. 49. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. brennen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2331). Icel. brenna.

brere, a briar. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 2; Sackville, Induction, st. 39. A very common prov. pronunc. (EDD.). OE. (Mercian) brēr, WS. brǣr.

bret, the name of a fish like the turbot; ‘The bret, of all [fishes] the slowest’, Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Hephestion). Also called a birt or burt. See EDD.

bretch, a breach; ‘With careless bretch’, Phaer. and Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x. 467. F. brÈche.

brevit, to hunt about, search, pry, beat about, forage; ‘Breviting by night’, Drayton, The Owl, 179. Prob. from brevet, in the sense of taking by ‘brevet’ or written warrant (NED.). In gen. use in the midland counties (EDD.).

briars: phr. in the briars, in troubles, among thorns; ‘I ought not so to leave Eccho in the bryers’, Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 1.

bribe, a thing stolen, Barclay, Shyp of Folys, ii. 85. OF. bribe, a piece of bread, F. ‘bribe, a peece of bread given unto a beggar’ (Cotgr.).

bribe, to take dishonestly, to purloin, to steal or rob; ‘They do deceive the needy, bribe and pill from them’, Cranmer, Instr. of Prayer; ‘I bribe, I pyll’, Palsgrave. ME. brybyn (briben) ‘latrocinor’ (Prompt.).

bribery, robbery with violence, extortion, Geneva Bible (Matt. xxiii. 25).

bribour, a thief or robber, Berners, tr. of Froissart, ii. 10. 21. ME. brybowre (Prompt.).

brickle, fragile, easily broken; ‘Brickle vessels’, Bible (AV.), Wisdom, xv. 13; ‘brickle, fragilis’, Levins, Manip.; Spenser, Ruins of Time, 499; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. 8. OE. brycel, see NED. (s.vv. Britchel, Brickle). See brokle, bruckle.

bride-house, the house where a wedding is held. ‘A public hall for celebrating marriages’, Nares. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 22.

bride-lace, a piece of gold, silk, or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly used at weddings. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard).

bridling-cast, a glass taken when the horse is bridled; a stirrup-glass, stirrup-cup. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless).

brigand-harness, a brigandine, a piece of armour worn by a ‘brigand’ or foot-soldier. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 251. See brigandine.

brigandine, a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.); also brigantine, Baret, Alvearie. F. brigandin (brigantin).

brigandine, a coat-of-mail, corslet. Milton, Samson, 1120.

briggen-yrons, brigand-irons, armour for the arms. Thersites, ed. Pollard, l. 169. See brigand-harness.

brim, fierce, esp. an epithet of the boar; ‘Never bore so brymme’, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 6. 5; ME. brym (brim) fierce (Prompt.). See breme (1).

brim, (of reports, rumours) loudly current, much spoken of. Throgmorton (NED., s.v. Breme 4); brimme, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv. ch. 20, st. 35. See breme (2).

brimse, a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); brimsees, pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. bremse; Icel. brims (Fritzner). Norw. dialect brims (Aasen); Swed. brems.

brinch, to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie); also written brince, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the German expression, Ich bring’s (euch), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. brindisi (Florio).

brinded, brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).

bring: phr. to be with one to bring: a phrase of various application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.

brist: phr. full brist, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding, Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. berstan, to burst (EDD.).

brize, a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii. 10; spelt bryze, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called briz in Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.¹). OE. briosa (breosa).

brocage, procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal. (beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice, Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. brocage (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3375). Anglo-F. brocage, the action of an intermediary.

broche, the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52. OF. broche. Med. L. broca, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).

broche, broach, a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545; to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 92. F. broche, a spit; brocher, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).

brock, a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. broke, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE. broc, cp. O. Irish brocc. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense (EDD.).

broken beer, remnants or leavings of beer in pots and glasses. Founded on the phrases broken meat, bread, or victuals, meaning fragments of meat, &c. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 4 (Slicer). So also broken bread, The London Chanticleers, sc. 1 (Heath).

broken music, concerted music, music arranged for parts. As You Like It, i. 2. 150; Hen. V, v. 2. 263; Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 52.

brokle, brittle, frail. Sir T. Elyot, bk. iii, c. 19, § 1. See bruckle.

bronstrops, a prostitute. ‘A bronstrops is in English a hippocrene’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Col.’s Friend); id. iv. 4 (Chough); Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 1.

brothel, an abandoned wretch; ‘Go hence, thou brothel’, Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82; ‘bitched brothel’, World and Child, in the same, i. 254. ME. brothell, a worthless fellow (Gower, C. A. vii. 2595).

brouse, brouze, young shoots of trees, eaten by cattle. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 132. 3; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 45.

brown bill, a weapon, a kind of halbert. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; King Lear, iv. 6. 92.

bruckel’d, begrimed, dirty. Herrick, The Temple, 58. In use in the north country and in East Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bruckle, vb.²).

bruckle, brittle, fragile. Puttenham, E. Poesie, p. 219. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland and Ireland (EDD.). OE. brucol. See brokle, brickle.

bruit, a rumour, report. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 64; Timon, v. 1. 198; to noise abroad, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 114; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 68. F. bruit, noise, rumour.

†brusle (meaning doubtful), to crack (?). Fletcher, A Wife for a Month ii. 6 (Camillo). Perhaps the same word as brustle.

brustle, to parch, scorch, to crackle in cooking or burning, as in Gower, C. A. iv. 2732. ‘He . . . brustleth as a monkes froise (pancake)’. Hence, to make a noise like the waves of the sea, spelt brussel, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Lopez). In prov. use in the north, also in Kent and Sussex, in the sense of scorching, crackling; see EDD. (s.v. Brustle, vb.²).

brustle, brusle, to raise the feathers, like a bird. Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1859, p. 122).

brutel, brittle. Spelt brutyll, Morte Arthur, leaf 65, end; bk. iv, c. 8 (end). ME. brutel, brotel (Chaucer).

bub, to bubble. Sackville, Induction, st. 69.

bubber, a drinker of wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza).

bubble, to delude with bubbles, or unsubstantial schemes; to cheat. Etheredge, Love in a Tub, ii. 3 (Wheedle).

bubble, one who can be easily ‘bubbled’; a dupe. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

buck, to steep or boil (clothes) in lye; ‘Bucke these shyrtes’, Palsgrave; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 150; the quantity of clothes washed at once, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 52; buck-basket, basket for dirty linen, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 2. Phr. to beat a buck, to beat clothes when being washed, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); to drive a buck, to wash clothes, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii (end). See EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.²). ME. bouken, to steep in lye (P. Plowman). OE. type *būcian, cp. G. bÄuchen, to steep in lye; also Ital. bucata, F. buÉe, lye, a wash of clothes.

buckall, the point of a horn; ‘You all know the device of the horn, where the young fellow slips in at the butt-end, and comes squeezed out at the buckall’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Touchstone). Here buckall = buckle, meaning the twisted or curled end of the horn, i.e. the smaller end. Cp. prov. E. buckle-horn, a crooked or bent horn; buckle-mouthed, having a twisted mouth (EDD.).

bucke, the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the bucke was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp. the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.⁶ 3); also pronounced bouk (Bouk, sb.¹ 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.¹ 3. c).

buckle, to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay 21. Buckle with, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also buckle, to bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; buckled, doubled up, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.

bud, said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John, iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs. Pinchwife). A transferred sense of bud (of a flower).

†bud; ‘ ’Tis strange these varlets . . . should thus boldly Bud in your sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas). Meaning unknown.

budge, lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65. Budge-bachelor, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a gown trimmed with budge on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, budge doctor, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.

bug, an object of terror, bogey, hobgoblin. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 214; Hamlet, v. 2. 22; Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor); ‘Thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night’, Coverdale, Ps. xc (xci), 5. ME. bugge, ‘ducius’ (Prompt.).

bug words, pompous, conceited words, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Marrall); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2 (Huntley). See EDD. (s.v. Bug, adj. 1).

bulch, to stave in the bottom of a ship. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 132. Cp. bulge, the ‘bilge’, bottom of a ship’s hull (NED. s.v. Bulge, sb. 4).

bulch, a bull-calf; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Sawyer). Still in prov. use in Scotland: ‘Sic a bonnie bulch o’ a bairn’, a Banffshire expression (EDD.).

bulchin, a bull-calf. Tusser, Husbandry, 33; Drayton, Pol. xxi. 65; used as a term of endearment, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.); a term of contempt, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). A Shropsh. word for a calf; fig. a stout child (EDD.). See bulkin.

bulcking, a term of endearment. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, i. 671. See NED. (s.v. Bulkin).

bulk, the belly, Lucrece, 467; the trunk, the body; spelt boulke. Elyot, Castle Health (NED.); Richard III, i. 4. 40.

bulk, a framework projecting from the front of a shop. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 226; Othello, v. 1. 1.

bulker, a petty thief; also, a street-walker, prostitute. (Cant.) Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (2 Bully). One who sleeps on a ‘bulk’, one who steals from a ‘bulk’; see bulk (above).

bulkin, a bull-calf; ‘A young white bulkin’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxviii, c. 12. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). See bulchin.

bull, a jest; ‘To print his jests. Hazard. His bulls, you mean’, Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3.

bull-beggar, an object of terror, a hobgoblin. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, i. 4 (near the end); A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (Host); Bull-begger, ‘larva, Terriculamentum,’ Skinner (1671). Perhaps a corruption of bull-boggart. See NED.

bulled, swollen. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (George). Still in use in Northamptonsh. and Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. bolled, swollen (NED.).

bullions. The full form is bullion-hose (NED.), a term applied to trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. ‘His bastard bullions’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen) [bastard is the name of a kind of cloth]; a pair of bullions, The Chances, v. 2 (John); in the bullion, i.e. wearing bullions, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Pontalier).

bully-rook, a familiar term of endearment, fine fellow. Merry Wives, i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii. 1 (Thomazo). See EDD. (s.v. Bully, sb.¹).

bum, to strike, beat, thump. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); Greene, James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). See EDD. (s.v. Bum, vb.³ 1).

bum out, to project; ‘What have you bumming out there?’ Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

bum vay, a familiar contraction of by my fay, by my faith. Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, iv. 3, near the end; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 364; by my vay, Wily Beguiled, Hazlitt, ix. 328. See EDD. (s.v. Fay, sb.¹ 1). ME. by my fey (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126).

bumb-blade. (Cant.) Given in NED. as bum-blade, a large sword, Massinger, City Madam, i. 2 (Page).

bump, to make a noise like a bittern, to boom. Dryden, Wife of Bath, 194. Bumping, the boom of the bittern, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii. c. 27 (4). See EDD. (s.v. Bump, vb.²).

bunch, a company of teal; a technical word in falconry. Drayton, xxv. 63. In E. Anglia they speak of a ‘bunch’ of wild-fowl, see EDD. (s.v. Bunch, sb.¹ ii. 2).

bung, a purse. (Cant.) Dekker, Roaring Girl (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 217); a pick-pocket, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 138.

bunting, fat, plump. In Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 10. NED. explains it as ‘plump’; but suggests that it may perhaps mean ‘butting’, from the verb bunt, to butt. I was at first inclined to take the same view; but the context decides altogether in favour of the adjective. In l. 7, Faunus brings with him ‘The fattest, fairest fawn in all the chace: I wonder how the knave could skip so fast.’; i.e. because he was so fat. And Pan replies that he has brought with him an equally fat lamb, viz. ‘A bunting lamb; nay, pray you, feel no bones [i.e. you can’t feel his bones]. Believe me now, my cunning much I miss If ever Pan felt fatter lamb than this’. See EDD. (s.v. Bunting, adj.¹).

burble, to bubble. Spelt burbyl, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 8; bk. xviii. c. 21; pres. pt. burbelynge, id. lf. 208. 17; bk. x. c. 2; ‘I boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring’, Je bouillonne, Palsgrave. See EDD.

burbolt, a bird-bolt, a kind of blunt-headed arrow used for shooting birds. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Custance); Marston, What you Will, Induction (Philomuse).

burden, a staff, club. In Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 46. See bordon.

burdseat, a board-seat, i.e. a stool. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 408.

burgh; See burre (2).

burgullian, a term of abuse. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob).

burle, to pick out from cloth knots, loose threads, &c.; ‘Desquamare vestes, to burle clothe’, Cooper, Dict. (1565). Hence Burling-iron, a pair of tweezers used in ‘burling’, Herrick, To the Painter, 10. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Burl, vb. 1). ME. burle clothe, ‘extuberare’ (Cath. Angl.).

Burmoothes, the Bermudas. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, i. 2 (end). See Bermoothes.

burnish, to grow stout or plump, to fill out; said of the human frame. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 37; vol. i, p. 345 b (1634); Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 3 (Mrs. Marwood); ‘Femme qui encharge, that grows big on’t, who burnishes, or whose belly increases’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. In prov. use, see EDD.

burnt, branded as a criminal. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall).

burnt sack, a particular kind of wine heated at the fire, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 222; burnt wine, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Scapha); burnt claret, The Tatler, no. 36, § 5 (1709).

burre, the lowest of the tines on a stag’s horn. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. Still in use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹ 7), where the word is defined, ‘the ball or knob of a stag’s horn at its juncture with the skull’. See antlier.

burre, an iron ring on a tilting spear, just behind the place for the hand. ‘Burre or yron of a launce, &c.’, Florio, tr. of Montaigne, ii. 37; in form burgh, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Moll). ME. burwhe, sercle, ‘orbiculus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 268). See EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.⁶), and NED. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹).

burrough, borrow, a pledge, a surety. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Pan); v. 2 (Turfe). ME. borwe, a pledge (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1622). OE. borh (dat. borge).

Burse, an Exchange; esp. the Royal Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566; it contained shops. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 13; Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Moll’s Song). F. bourse.

bursmen, (perhaps) shopmen; ‘Welcome, still my merchants of bona speranza [i.e. gamblers]; . . what ware deal you in? . . Say, my brave bursmen’, A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (beginning). I think the reference is to keepers of shops in the Burse; see above.

bursten, ruptured. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3 (Savil). In common prov. use (with various pronunciations), see EDD. (s.v. Burst, vb. 2).

bushment, an ambush. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. ME. buschment (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 269).

busine, a trumpet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 199. 20; busyne, id., lf. 187, back, 26. Anglo-F. buisine (Ch. Rol., 3523), L. buccina.

buske, a bush. Ralph, Roister Doister, i. 4 (M. Merygreek). ME. buske, or busshe, ‘rubus’ (Prompt.).

buskets, a spray, as of hawthorn. May buskets, sprays of ‘May’ or hawthorn, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 10. See Dict. (s.v. Bouquet).

buskined, wearing the buskins of tragedy; hence tragic, dignified. ‘The buskin’d scene’, Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1. 6; ‘buskin’d strain’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 333.

busking, an attiring; esp. the dressing of the head. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i. (ed. Arber, p. 54). ME. busken, to get oneself ready (Cursor M., 11585). See Dict.

buskle, to prepare oneself; hence, to set out, start on a journey, set to work, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid iii. 359 (ed. Arber, 81); to hurry about, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 51. Freq. of busk, vb.; see above.

busk-point, the lace, with its tag (or point), which secured the end of the ‘busk’, or strip of wood in the front of the stays. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 2 (Hodge); Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Maquerelle); How a Man may Choose, i. 3 (Fuller).

busky, bushy. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 2. See bosky.

bustain, (prob.) clothed in bustian or busteyn, a cotton fabric of foreign manufacture; used as a term of derision; ‘Penthesilea with her bustain troopes’ (i.e. her Amazons). Heywood, Iron Age, pt. ii; vol. iii, p. 368. OF. bustanne, ‘sorte d’Étoffe fabriquÉe À Valenciennes’ (Godefrey).

but, except, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 82; Massinger, Renegado, i. 2; unless, Bible, Amos iii. 17; but if, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 16; iv. 8. 33. In prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. Wyclif, John xii. 24: ‘But a corn of whete falle in to the erthe, and be deed, it dwellith alone.’

but-bolt, butt-bolt, an unbarbed arrow used in shooting at the butts. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). See butt-shaft.

butin, booty. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 277, back, 18. F. butin.

butter-box, a contemptuous term for a (fat) Dutchman. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 5. 8; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Fulgoso).

butter-print, a humorous expression for a child, as bearing the stamp of the parents’ likeness. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 10; The Chances, i. 5 (Don John); Span. Curate, ii. 1 (Diego).

buttery-bar, the horizontal ledge on the top of the buttery-hatch, or half-door, to rest tankards on, Twelfth Nt., i. 3. 75. Buttery-hatch, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Robin). A ‘buttery-hatch’ is still to be seen opposite the entrance to the dining-hall in every college in Oxford. See NED.

button, a bud. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1. 6. ME. botoun (Rom. Rose, 1721). OF. bouton, a bud (Rom. Rose); see Bartsch, 412.

buttons, to make, to be in great fear. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Sancho). See EDD. (s.v. Button, sb.¹ 8 and 12).

butt-shaft, an arrow (without a barb), for shooting at the butts. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); L. L. L. i. 2. 181.

buxom, yielding, obedient; blithe, lively. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Henry V, iii. 6. 28; Milton, L’Allegro, 24. See Dict.

buzzes, for burrs-es, double pl. of burr; burrs; used of the rough seed-vessels of some plants. Field, Woman a Weathercock, ii. 1 (Scudmore).

by and by, immediately. Bible, Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9; Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 2. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

by-blow, a bastard. Ussher, Annals, 499 (NED.); Cox, Registers, Lambeth, A.D. 1688, p. 75. In common prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. By(e, 8 (4)).

by-chop, a bastard. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 2 (Chair).

bye, a secondary object; bye and main, a term orig. used in dicing, expressing different ways of winning. To bar bye and main, to prevent entirely, stop altogether, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura).

bye, to pay the penalty for, atone for. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. 30. Cp. ME. abyen, to buy off (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393). See aby.

bynempt, declared solemnly, promised with an oath. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60; Shep. Kal., July, 214. See benempt.

by’r lakin, by our Lady-kin or little Lady (with reference to the Virgin Mary). Temp. iii. 3. 1; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14. So also Byrlady, Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 2 (1 Gent.). In prov. use from Yorksh. to Derbysh., see EDD. (s.v. Byrlakins).

byse, greyish; light blue, or azure. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1158. See Dict. (s.v. Bice).

bysse, fine linen; also, a vague name for any fine or costly material. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 558; Peele, Honour of the Garter, l. 88. OF. bysse, L. byssus, Gk. βύσσos, ‘fine linen’ (Luke xvi. 19); Heb. būts, applied to the finest and most precious stuffs as worn by persons of high rank or honour (1 Chron. iv. 21).

cabage, to cut off the head of a deer close behind his horns. Turbervile, Hunting, xliii. 134; ‘I wyll cabage my dere, je cabacheray ma beste’, Palsgrave. ME. caboche (Book on Hunting; NED.). F. (Picard) caboche, the head, see H. Estienne, PrÉcellence, 175. 397.

cabbish, a cabbage. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). A Yorksh. pronunc. (EDD.).

cabinet, a cabin, hut, lodging. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 83; ‘(the lark’s) moist cabinet’, Venus and Adonis, 854.

cabrito, a kid. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight). Span. cabrito.

cacafugo, a spitfire, a braggart, blustering fellow. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 1. 8. Span. cacafuego.

cackler, the domestic fowl. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

cackling-cheat; see cheat. (Cant.)

cacokenny, a purposely perverted form of cacochymy, an unhealthy state of the humours or fluids of the body. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, iii. 2 (Sweetball). Gk. κακοχυμία.

caddess, the jackdaw. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi. 541; ‘A cadesse or a dawe, Monedula’, Baret, Alvearie. An old Yorksh. word (EDD.).

caddow, the jackdaw. Huloet, Dict. (1552); spelt cadowe, Golding, Metam., vii. 468; Tusser, Husbandry, § 46. 28. ME. cadow(e, ‘monedula’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 313).

cade, a young animal brought up by hand; usually, a pet-lamb; rarely, a foal. ‘The Cade which cheweth the Cudde’ (here, apparently, a calf), Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, iii. 4 (Ambidexter). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cade, sb.³ 1). ME. a cade, ‘ovis domestica’ (Cath. Angl.).

cade, oil of, oil from the prickly cedar. Oyle of Cade, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66; p. 187. F. cade, the prickly cedar (Cotgr).

caitif, a captive. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 794; caitifes, unhappy men, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. 253. Also, mean, niggardly, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 3. Norm. F. ‘caitif, malheureux, misÉrable, captif’ (Moisy); cp. Prov. caitiu, ‘captif, chÉtif, misÉrable, mauvais, mÉchant’ (Levy). Celto-L. type *cactivum, L. captivum.

calambac, an Eastern name of aloes-wood or eagle-wood. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571. Malay kalambak. See NED.

caldesed, chaldesed, cheated. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 1010; Elephant in the Moon, 494. Coined from Chaldees, pl. of Chaldee, a Chaldean, an astrologer.

Calipolis, the wife of the Moor in Peele’s play, Battle of Alcazar, ii. 3: ‘Feed, then, and faint not, fair Calipolis.’ Hence Pistol has: ‘Feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 193; and Heywood has: ‘To feed, and be fat, my fine Cullapolis’, Royal King (Captain), vol. vi, p. 30. Those who consult Peele’s play will find the quotation to be extremely humorous. Pistol’s words occur again in Marston, What you Will, v. 1. 1.

calke, to calculate. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 15; kalked, pp.; id. Clarence, st. 26. Short for calcule, F. calculer, L. calculare.

calker, calcar, a calculator, an astrologer; ‘Calkers of mens byrthes’, Coverdale, Isaiah ii. 6; calcars, Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Jopas, 60; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 95.

calkins, the turned-up ends of the horse-shoe which raise the heels from the ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 68; ‘Rampone, a calkin in a horses shoon to keepe him from sliding’, Florio. This word, with various pronunciations, is in prov. use in many parts of England from Lancash. to Shropsh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Calkin). OF. calcain, heel (Godefrey). L. calcaneum, heel (Vulg., John xiii. 18).

callet, a lewd woman, a tramp’s concubine. Othello, iv. 2. 122. B. Jonson, Volpono, iv. 1 (Lady P.); ‘Paillarde, a strumpet, callet’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorksh., and Lancash., see EDD. (s.v. Callet, sb.¹ 1). A Gipsy word, see Englische Studien, XXII (ann. 1895).

callot, calotte, a coif worn on the wig of a serjeant-at-law, a skull-cap. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Bias); Etheredge, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Joslin). F. calotte, dimin. of cale, a caul.

†callymoocher, a term of abuse. Only occurs in Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, iii. 3 (Oliver).

calophantic, making a show of excellence; hypocritical. ‘Calophantic Puritaines’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 53, st. 21. Gk. καλό-ς, fair + -φαντης, one who shows, from φαίνειν, to show.

calvered salmon, fresh salmon prepared in a particular way; sometimes, apparently, pickled salmon. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1 (Gasparo). ME. calvar, ‘as samone or oder fysch’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 320).

cambrel, a crooked stick with notches on it, on which butchers hang their meat. Also cambren, see Phillips (1706). Wel. cambren; cam crooked, and pren wood, stick. In prov. use in Scotland, and in England, from the Border as far south as Warwick, see EDD. (s.v. Cambrel, sb.¹). See gambrel.

cambrel, the hock of an animal; spelt camborell. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 107. 3; ‘His crooked cambrils’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal, x. 20; ‘Chapelet du jarret, the cambrel hogh of a horse’, Cotgrave. See EDD.

camisado, a night attack by soldiers; orig. one in which the attacking soldiers wore shirts over their armour, that they might recognize one another. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 297; Gascoigne, Jocasta, Act ii, sc. 2, l. 56. Span. camiÇada, ‘a camisado, assault’ (Minsheu). CamiÇa, camisa, ‘a shirt’, id. Late L. camisia, a shirt (Jerome). See NED. (s.v. Chemise).

cammock, camocke, a crooked tree; esp. one that is artificially bent. Lyly, Euphues, pp. 46, 408; Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 579, col. 2. ME. cambok, ‘pedum’ (Voc. 666. 27); Med. L. cambuca, ‘baculus incurvatus’ (Ducange).

camois(e. Of the nose: low and concave; ‘a Camoise nose, crooked upwarde as the Morians’, Baret, Alvearie; ‘Camously croked’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 28; camused, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel). F. camus, having a short and flat nose (Cotgr.).

camomile; said to grow the more, when the more trodden upon. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 441; Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 2 (Mis. Carol).

camouccio, a term of reproach. B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 3 (Sogliardo); spelt camooch, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable (Lazarillo). Perhaps Ital. camoscio, the chamois.

can, a wooden measure for liquor. Phr. burning of cans, branding measures, to show that they were of legal capacity; B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus).

Can, a lord, prince; ‘A great Emperor in Tartary whom they call Can’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 11; p. 106. See Dict. (s.v. Khan).

can, pres. indic., know; ‘Unlearned men that can no letters’, Foxe, Martyrs (ed. 1684, ii. 325); ‘Can you a remedy for the tysyke?’ Skelton, Magnyf. 561; B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). ME. ‘I can a noble tale’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3126). See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.¹ 1).

can, used as an auxiliary of the past tense; ‘Tho can she weepe’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 50; ‘He can her fairely greet’, id. i. 4. 46. ME. very common in Cursor M.; e.g. ‘Moses fourti dais can (v.r. gan) Þer-on duell’, 6462. See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.² 2).

canaglia, canaille, rabble. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. canaglia, ‘base and rascally-people, only fit for dogs company’ (Florio).

canary, a quick and lively dance. All’s Well, ii. 1. 77; pl. canaries, Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Ward); to dance, L. L. L. iii. 12.

canceleer, cancelier, a hawking term. A hawk canceleers when, in stooping, she turns two or three times upon the wing, to recover herself before she seizes the prey. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a turn or two in the air, Drayton, Pol. xx. 229. OF. (Picard) canceler (F. chanceler), to swerve, waver.

candle: phr. to hold a candle to the devil, to assist an evil person, to persevere in evil courses. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 316 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1). Cp. the Gloucestersh. saying, ‘To offer a candle to the devil’, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 2 (5)).

candles’ ends, bits of lighted candle swallowed as flapdragons; see flapdragon. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 2. 24; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 267.

candle-waster, one who sits up late, and so wastes candles; a student, or a rake. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Much Ado, v. 1. A Somerset expression, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 1 (22)).

cane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn. G. Sandys, Trav. p. 57. See Stanford (s.v. Khan). Arab, khān, a building (unfurnished) for the accommodation of travellers (Dozy, Glossaire, 83). See hane.

canicular, due to the dog-star. Canicular aspect, influence of the dog-star, excessive heat, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 3 (2083); p. 144, col. 1. ‘Of the canicular or dog-days’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors; bk. iv, ch. 13. L. canicula, dog-star (Horace).

canion, an ornamental roll laid in a set like sausages round the ends of the legs of breeches; ‘French hose . . . with Canions annexed reaching down beneath their knees’, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (see Furnivall, 56). ‘Chausses À queue de merlus, round breeches with strait cannions’, Cotgrave. Span. caÑon, a tube, pipe, gun-barrel.

canker, a caterpillar, a canker-worm. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 3; Milton, Lycidas, 45. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Canker, sb.² 6). ME. cankyr, ‘teredo’ (Prompt.).

canker, the dog-rose. 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 176. Cp. the prov. words canker-ball, the mossy excrescence on a wild rose-bush, canker-bell, the bud of a wild rose, canker-berry, the ‘hip’ of a wild rose, canker-rose, ‘Rosa canina’, the wild rose (EDD).).

cankered, ill-tempered. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 3; King John, ii. 1. 194. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

cannakin, a small can; ‘Let me the cannakin clinke’, Othello, ii. 3. 71.

cannel: Cannel bone; ‘The neck-bone or windpipe’, Phillips, Dict.; Golding, tr. Metam. 284; the collar-bone, Holland, Plutarch’s Mor. 409; spelt canell: canell of the necke (?), the nape of the neck, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 348. 10. Cp. cannell-bone (Lancash.), and channel-bone (Somerset) in prov. use for the collar-bone (EDD.). OF. (Picard) canel, a channel; F. canneau du col, ‘the nape of the neck’ (Cotgr.).

canon-bitt, a smooth round bit for horses. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37; ‘Canon, a canon-bitt for a horse’, Cotgrave. O. Prov. canon, a tube (Levy).

canstick, a candlestick. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 131. Still in use in Berks. (EDD.).

cant, a corner, a niche; ‘Irene or Peace, she was placed aloft in a cant’, B. Jonson, James I’s Entertainment (1603); Warner, Monuments of Honour (ed. Dyce, 369) See EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb.³ 1). Norm. F. cant, ‘angle’ (Moisy).

cant, a piece, portion. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 45. A Kentish term, see EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb⁴ 2). Cp. M. Du. kant (Verdam).

canted, tilted up, thrown up. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 211. See EDD. (s.v. Cant, vb.³ 9 (1)). E. Fris. kanten, ‘etwas auf die Seite legen’ (Koolman).

canter, one who cants, a vagrant. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. Can.).

cantharides, a kind of flies; Spanish flies; sometimes Aphides. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, viii. 54. Used as a stimulant, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 1 (Cleremont). L. cantharides, pl. of cantharis; Gk. κανθαρίς, blister-fly.

canting out, singing out, in a beggar’s whine; ‘ ’Tis easier canting out, “A piece of broken bread for a poor man”, than singing “Brooms, maids, brooms: come, buy my brooms”,’ The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath).

cantle, a part, portion; ‘Liron de pain, a cantle of bread’, Cotgrave; ‘A cantel pars, portio’, Levins. Manipulus. ME. cantel, ‘minutal’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 324). OF. (Picard) cantel = F. chanteau, ‘a corner-piece or piece broken off from the corner, hence, a cantel of bread’ (Cotgr.).

cantle, to portion out, Dekker, Whore of Babylon, i. 1. 9; Dryden, Juvenal’s Satire, vii.

cantore, counting-house, office; ‘A Dutchman’s money i’ th’ Cantore’, Butler, Abuse of human learning (Remains i. 211). Du. kantoor, F. comptoir, a counter.

cantred, a hundred; a district containing 100 townships. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 676, col. 1. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 398. Wel. cantref, a cantred; cant, a hundred + tref, a town. See Ducange (s.v. Cantredus).

canvas: phr. to receive the canvas, to get the sack; i.e. to be dismissed. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1 (Luys); give the canvas, to dismiss, Hyde Park, i. 1 (end).

canvasado, a night attack by soldiers. Merry Devil, i. 1. 44. App. a perverted form of camisado, q.v.; due to confusion with canvass, vb., to knock about, to assault (NED.).

cap, to arrest. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). From. L. capias, the name of a writ; writ of capias, a writ of arrest.

cap a-huff, to set, to cock one’s cap or hat, to put on a swaggering appearance. Greene, James IV, iv. 4. 13. See huff-cap.

cap of maintenance, a kind of hat or cap worn as a symbol of official dignity, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in processions. In the 17th cent. and later it is mentioned chiefly as borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the Sovereign at his coronation. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1; A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Maintenance).

capadochio, a prison. Puritan Widow, i. 3. 56; ‘in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72; spelt Capperdochy, id. p. 86. App. for Cappadocia (a bit of university slang).

cap-case, a bandbox, cover, basket. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 4 (De F.); a small travelling-bag, Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 3 (Philogano).

caper, a privateer, cruiser. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin). Du. kaper, a privateer (Sewel, ed. 1766).

capilotade, a kind of hash, or mixed dish; hence, a hash, a made-up story. ‘What a capilotade of a story’s here!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, iii. 2 (Flippanta). F. capilotade, ‘a capilotadoe, or stued meat’, &c. (Cotgr.).

capnomanster, one who divines from the way in which smoke rises from an altar. For capnomancer, Birth of Merlin, iv. 1. 62. From capnomancy, divination by smoke. Gk. καπνομαντεία.

capocchia, a simpleton. In Tr. and Cr. iv. 2. 33. Fem. of Ital. capocchio, ‘a doult, a noddie’ (Florio).

capot, in the game of piquet, the winning of all the tricks by one player, which scores 40. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 2 (Wildair); to win all the tricks at the game of piquet against another; ‘I have capotted her’, id. i. 1 (Fireball). F. faire capot (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cappadocian. In Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 1, Eyre, who had come to be Lord Mayor of London, says that he had promised ‘the mad Cappadocians’, who had been his fellow-apprentices, that he would feast them if he ever attained to that dignity. I think it is evidently a jocose expression for mad-caps, with a punning reference to the cap, i.e. the flat-cap, which was the special headgear of the London apprentice, and to which frequent references are made. Just below he varies it to ‘my fine dapper Assyrian lads’.

caprich, a freak, a whim, fancy, sudden giddy thought. Butler, Hadibras, ii. 1. 18; printed capruch, Shirley, Example, ii. 1 (Vainman). Ital. capriccio, ‘a sudden fear apprehended, making one’s hair to stand on end’ (Florio); lit. the bristling of the head (capo + riccio); see note on ‘Caprice’, by A. L. Mayhew, in Mod. Lang. Rev., July, 1912.

capricious, witty. As You Like It, iii. 3. 8; Heywood, The Fair Maid, iii. 2 (Roughman).

capte, capacity. Only in Udall: tr. of Apoph., Preface, p. vi (1877); fol. 23, back (1542); id. Cicero, § 45.

capuccio, a hood. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 10. Ital. capuccio, a cowl.

carabin(e, carbine, a mounted musketeer. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 1 (Merchant). F. carabin, ‘cavalier qui porte une carabine’ (Dict. de l’Acad.).

caract, worth, value. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., iii. 3. 23 (Kitely); Volpone, i. 1 (Corvino); Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass).

caract, carect, a mark, sign, character. Meas. for M. v. 1. 56; holy Carects, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Golding, De Mornay, iii. 37. ME. carect (Wyclif, Apoc. xx. 4). Prov. caracta, ‘marque, caractÈre’ (Levy). Norm. F. caractes, pl. caractÈres magiques (Moisy). L. caracter (Vulg., Apoc. xx. 4), Gk. χαρακτήρ.

caravan (Cant), an object inviting plunder; hence, a dupe, one easily cheated. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1; iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

caravel, carvel, a kind of light ship. Eden, Three Books on America (ed. Arber, p. 45). Spelt carvel, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 2. 15. F. caravelle, Ital. caravella, Port. caravÉla.

carbonado, a piece of flesh scored across and grilled upon coals. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. 47; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 199; Lyly, Sapho, ii. 3. 175; to make a ‘carbonado’ of, King Lear, ii. 2. 42. Span. carbonada, ‘a carbonado on the coles’ (Minsheu).

carcanet, a collar or necklace of jewels. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 4; ‘Captain jewels in the carcanet’, Sonnet 52. 8. Cp. F. carcan, ‘une espÈce de chaÎne ou de collier de pierreries’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

card, a chart; esp. the circular card on which the points of the compass were marked. Macbeth, i. 3. 17; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iii. 2 (Archas). To speak by the card, i.e. with the precision shown by such a card, Hamlet, v. 1. 149. ‘Climes that took up the greatest part o’ th’ card’, i.e. of the map, Heywood, If you know not me (Medina), vol. i. p. 334.

card, to play at cards. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, ed. Arber, p. 25. To card a rest, to set up a rest, at the game of primero (see rest), Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 32.

cardecu, an old silver coin, a quarter of a crown. All’s Well, iv. 3. 314; v. 2. 35. F. quart d’Écu.

carduus benedictus, the Blessed Thistle, noted for its medicinal properties. Much Ado, iii. 4. 72; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea). See Sin. Barth. 14.

care: phr. to take care for, to give attention to. Bible, 2 Kings xxii, and Esther vi (contents).

carect, carrect, a carrack, a ship of burden. ‘Carects or hulks’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 36 (in Shak. Plut., p. 213, n. 3); carrects, pl., Com. Errors, iii. 2. 140. Med. L. carraca, see Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Caraca).

careful, anxious, solicitous. Titus And. iv. 4. 84; Milton, P. L. iv. 983; Bible, Dan. iii. 16. ME. careful, full of care, sorrowful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1565).

carfe, an incision, cut. Golding, Metam. viii. 762; fol. 104, bk. (1603) ‘Carf’ is in prov. use for the incision or notch made by a saw or axe in felling timber (EDD.).

cargazon, a cargo; ‘A cargazon of complements’, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xv, p. 67. Also, a list of goods shipped; Hakluyt, vol. ii, pt. 1, p. 217. Span. cargazon, cargo.

cargo, used as an exclamation. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iv (Butler); Tomkis, Epil. to Albumazar. In both cases the context refers to great riches.

cark(e, anxiety, grief. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 44; Massinger, Roman Actor, ii. 1 (Paris); ‘Esmoy, cark, care, thought, sorrow, heaviness’, Cotgrave; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country; gen. in phr. cark and care (EDD.). ME. cark(e, anxiety (Gamelyn, 760). Anglo-F. cark (kark), charge, load (Rough List). The Norman and Picard form of Central F. charge. See Dict. Cark(e, to be anxious; ‘I carke, I care, I take thought’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 15; Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, 107.

carl, a countryman, a churl. Cymb. v. 2. 4; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 54. Icel. karl, a man, also, one of the common folk; opposed to jarl, as OE. ceorl to eorl.

carl, to act as a carl or churl, to snarl. Return from Parnassus, last scene (Furor). The verb is given as a north Yorksh. word in EDD. (s.v. Carl, sb.¹ 3).

carlot, a peasant. As You Like It, iii. 5. 108.

carnadine, a carnation-coloured stuff. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 2. 4. Ital. carnadino, a flesh-colour (Florio); carne, flesh.

carnifex, a hangman; hence, a scoundrel. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). L. carnifex, an executioner.

caroche, a luxurious kind of carriage. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 6); Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2; Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Leonora). F. carroche (Cotgr.). Ital. carroccio, a carriage, a ‘caroche’.

carosse, a carriage. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. i (D’Escures). F. carosse (Cotgr.); Med. F. carrosse.

†carpell. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 401, col. 1. Sense unknown.

carpet, a table-cloth, a table-cover. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Truewit); Staple of News, i. 2. 2; ‘a carpet to cover the table’, Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Jenkin); ‘carpets for their tables’, Heylin, Hist. of the Reformation, To the Reader. It was in this sense that a matter was said to be ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the council-table). See Trench, Select Glossary.

carpet-knight, a contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements belong rather to the carpet (the lady’s boudoir) than to the field of battle; ‘Mignon de couchette, a Carpet-knight, one that ever loves to be in women’s chambers’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, i. 1 (Alberto). There was once an order of Knights of the Carpet, so called to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed for service in the field. See NED.

carriage, that which is carried, baggage. Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 22; Acts xxi. 15; ‘Carriages of an army are termed impedimenta’, Fuller, Worthies of England, Norfolk; manner of carrying one’s body, bodily deportment, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 472; demeanour, behaviour, Com. Errors, iii. 2. 14; moral conduct, Timon, iii. 2. 89; Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Sanchio); Island Princess, ii. 6. 12.

carricado, a movement in fencing. Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 57. See NED. (s.v. Caricado).

carvel; see caravel.

carwitchet, carwhitchet, a pun, quibble, conundrum. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, v. 1 (Leath.); Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Morello). See NED. (s.v. Carriwitchet), and Nares (s.v. Carwhichet).

case, a pair; ‘This case of rapiers’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (description of Wrath); ‘A case (pair) of matrons’, B. Jonson, Case is altered, ii. 3. 1; ‘a case of pistols’, Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); ‘two case of jewels’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 46).

case, to skin. All’s Well, iii. 6. 111; ‘A cased rabbit’, Dryden, Span. Friar, v. 2 (Gomez); Vanbrugh, Provok’d Wife, iv. 1 (Taylor). Still in use in the north and the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Case, sb.¹ 6).

casible, a chasuble. Middleton, A Game at Chess, i. 1 (Blk. Knt.’s Pawn). Med. Lat. casibula (Ducange, s.v. Casula).

caskanet, a word common in the 17th cent., used sometimes in the sense of a necklace set with jewels (or carcanet), sometimes in the sense of a casket. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Jolenta); Lingua, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 426. See NED.

cass, to cashier, dismiss; ‘Malandrin, a cassed soldier’, Cotgrave. The pp. was confused with cast, and so spelt. ‘Pontius, you are cast’, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, ii. 3 (AËcius). F. casser, ‘to break, to casse, casseere, discharge, turn out of service’ (Cotgr.). Prov. casar, ‘casser, briser’ (Levy).

cassan, casson, cheese. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 83. Casson, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Cp. Du. kaas, a cheese.

cassock, a soldier’s cloak or long coat. All’s Well, iv. 3. 191; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii (near the end). The military use is the original; so F. casaque, Span. and Port. casaca, and Ital. casacca. Cp. MHG. casagÂn, a horseman’s coat (Schade). Probably of Persian origin (through the Arabic), see NED.

cast, for cassed; see cass.

caster, one who casts dice, in gaming. The setter is one who sets, or proposes, the amount of the stake against him. If the setter wants to propose a very high stake, he says—ware the caster! i.e. let him beware. The caster usually says at all! i.e. I cast against all setters; but he may limit the amount of the stake. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Tradewell).

caster, a cant term for a cloak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 82.

casting, anything given to a hawk to cleanse and purge her gorge. Massinger, Picture, iv. 1 (Ubaldo).

casting-bottle, a bottle for sprinkling perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Cupid); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Livia). So also casting-glass, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Macilente).

castrel, a kestrel, a base kind of hawk. Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). F. cercerelle, a kestrel (Cotgr.).

cat, in military phrase; a lofty work used in fortifications and sieges. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter); Shirley, Honoria, i. 2. This military work was also called a cavalier, q.v. See NED. (s.v. Cat, sb.¹ 6 b).

Cataian, a Cathaian, an inhabitant of Cathay; hence a thief, a scoundrel; because the Chinese were thought to be clever thieves, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 148; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See Nares.

cataphract, a horse-soldier, protected (as well as his horse) with a coat-of-mail. Milton, Samson, 1619. Gk. κατάφρακτος, one completely protected.

catasta, a jocose term for the stocks. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 259. L. catasta, a stage on which slaves were exposed for sale; Med. L. catasta, an engine of torture (Ducange).

catastrophe, conclusion; (humorously) the posteriors. L. L. L. iv. 1. 77; (2) 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 66; Merry Devil, ii. 1. 10.

†Catazaner, only in Shirley, Ball, v. 1 (Freshwater). Perhaps a misprint for Catayaner = Cataian, q.v.

cater, a caterer, purveyor, buyer of provisions. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1 (Luke); Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 26. ME. catour (Gamelyn, 321), for Anglo-F. acatour, a buyer. See Dict.

cater-tray, lit. ‘four-three’; alluding to the four and three on opposite faces of a die. Hence stop-cater-tray, the name of a false or loaded die. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. 1 (Dique). See quatre.

Catherine pear, a small and early variety of pear. Suckling, Ballad on Wedding. Catherine-pear-coloured, of a light red colour, used of a lady’s complexion, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). [Cp. Crabbe, Tales of the Hall, ‘ ’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine pear that brighten’d o’er her cheeks’ (x. 599).]

catlings, catgut strings for a violin. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 306.

catso, a rogue, a scamp. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); also as interj., ‘Cat-so! let us drink’, Motteux, Rabelais, v. 8 (NED.). Ital. cazzo, an interjection of admiration, as some women cry suddenly (Florio); cazzo, ‘membrum virile’.

catstick, a stick or bat used in playing tip-cat or trap-ball. Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page); Middleton, Women beware Women, i. 2 (Ward).

catzerie, roguery. Only in Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 12.

cauled, having or adorned with a caul or close-fitting cap; ‘My cauled countenance’, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 327. ME., P. Plowman, C. xvii. 351.

causen, to give reasons. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 26. Med. L. causare. (Ducange).

cautel(e, wariness, caution. Elyot, Governour, i. 4; a crafty device, trickery, Hamlet, i. 3. 15. OF. cautele, L. cautela (in Roman Law) precaution. Anglo-F. cautele, deceit (Rough List).

cautelous, cautious, wary. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.); Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed. 619); crafty, wily, Coriolanus, iv. 1. 33.

cavalier(o. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, ii. 4. 83; iii. 2. 81. Span. cavallÉro, ‘in Fortification, a Cavalier, or Mount, which is an Elevation of Earth with a platform for Canon on it, to overlook other Works’ (Stevens, 1706); cp. Ital. cavagliÉre a cavÁllo (Florio). F. cavalier, ‘se dit d’une piÈce de fortification de terre fort ÉlevÉe, & oÙ l’on met du canon’ (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cavallerie, an order of chivalry; ‘The knighthood and cavallerie of Rome’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 460; the collective name for horse-soldiers, Bacon, Hen. VII, 74; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 3 (Gonzaga). F. cavallerie, ‘horsemanship; horsemen’ (Cotgr.).

cavell, a mean fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2217; Lyndesay, Satyre, 2863. See Jamieson.

caveson, a strong nose-piece for a horse, a kind of curb; ‘The Lithuanians, sir, . . . must Be rid with cavesons’, Sir J. Suckling, Brennoralt, iii. 1; ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, p. 104. F. caveÇon, ‘a cavechine or cavasson for a horse’s nose’ (Cotgr.). Ital. cavezzone, augmentative of cavezza a halter; Med. L. capitia, capitium, a head-covering (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. cavesson).

cazimi, cazini: in phr. in cazimi, ‘a Planet is in the heart of the Sunne, or in Cazimi, when he is not removed from him 17 minutes’, Lilly, Astrology, xix. 113; ‘In cazini of the sun’, Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 6; Selden’s notes to Drayton, Pol. xiv (near the end).

cecchin, a sequin, gold coin. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2. Ital. zecchino, ‘a coin of gold current in Venice’ (Florio). See chequin.

cedule, a slip or scroll of parchment or paper containing writing. Caxton, Golden Legend, 114; spelt cedle, Morte Arthur, leaf 421, back, 5, bk. xxi, ch. 2; spelt sedyl (same page). OF. cedule; Med. Lat. cedula, scedula (Ducange), dimin. of sceda, scheda. See NED. (s.v. Schedule).

cee, a small portion of beer; marked in the buttery-book of a college with the letter c, which denoted one-sixteenth of a penny, or half a cue, as being its price. ‘Eate cues, drunk cees’, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 3. 9; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 367. ‘Cues and cees’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16, ed. Arber, p. 38. See cue.

cellar, a case or stand for holding bottles. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 1 (last line).

cemitare, a ‘scimitar’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 3. F. cimeterre (Cotgr.), Span. cimitarra.

censure, judgement, opinion, Richard III, ii. 2. 144; to form or give an opinion, to estimate, ‘How you are censured here in the city’, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 25.

cent, a game at cards; also spelt saint, sant; it seems to have resembled piquet. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One; Triumph of Death, sc. 5 (Gentille); Shirley, Example, iii. 1 (Confident). So called, because 100 was ‘game’. See Nares.

centener, a centurion. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (Shak. Plut., p. 237, n. 2); centiner, id. § 3 (p. 235, n. 2). F. centenier (Cotgr.), L. centenarius, consisting of a hundred; = centurio (Vegetius, fl. A.D. 385).

ceration, a reducing to the consistency of wax. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). L. cera, wax.

cere, to cover with wax, to shroud in a cere-cloth; ‘Then was the bodye . . . embawmed and cered’, Hall, Hen. VIII, ann. 5. L. cerare, to wax; cera, wax.

cere-cloth, the linen cloth dipped in melted wax to be used as a shroud. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 51; cp. cerements, Hamlet, i. 4. 48. See sear-cloth.

certes, certainly. Temp. iii. 3. 30; Com. Errors, iv. 4. 77. F. certes, truly (Cotgr.), O. Prov. certas (Levy).

cestron, a ‘cistern’. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 52.

cetywall, see setwall.

ch, a form of ich, utch, southern form of the first personal pronoun I. Cha, I have, More, Heresyes, iv (Works, 278); chad, I had, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 3; cham, I am, Peele, Sir Clyom., Works, iii. 85; B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 1; chave, I have, Peele, Arr. Paris, i. 1 (Pan); chee (for ich), I, London Prodigal, ii. 168; I chid, I should, ii. 1. 20; chill, I will, King Lear, iv. 6. 239; chud, I would, ib. See NED. and EDD.

chacon, a slow Spanish dance, or its tune; ‘Chacon: Two Nymphs and Triton sing’, Dryden, Albion, Act ii (end). F. chaconne (Hatzfeld); Span. chacona (Neuman and B.).

†chaflet, (?) a small platform or stage; ‘He satte vpon a chaflet in a chayer’ [chair], Morte Arthur, leaf 422, back, 2, bk. xxi, c. 3. Only in this passage. Probably the same as OF. chafault, a temporary platform. See NED. (s.v. Catafalque), and Dict. (s.v. Scaffold).

chaldrons, entrails of a calf, &c. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I. iii. 1 (Fustigo). Spelt chawdron, Macbeth, iv. 1. 33. Cp. dialect forms, chauldron, Hertford, chaudron, Gloucester, chawdon, Leicester, see EDD. (s.v. Chawdon). OF. chaudun, tripes (Roquefort); cp. G. kaldaunen.

challes, jaws. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75; chall-bones, jaw-bones; id. § 86. In common prov. use in England as far south as Bedford, see EDD. (s.v. Chawl). ME. chaul (Wyclif, 1 Kings xvii. 35); OE. ceafl.

cham, khan. The Great Cham, the Great Khan; commonly applied to the ruler of the Mongols and Tartars, and to the Emperor of China. Much Ado, ii. 1. 277; Fletcher, The Chances, v. 3 (Don John). Turki khān, lord, prince. See NED. (s.v. Cham, Khan).

chamber, a small cannon used to fire salutes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 57; Massinger, Renegado, v. 8. See NED. (s.v. Chamber. 10 b).

chambering, wanton behaviour in private places. Bible, Romans xiii. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, ii. 4 (Citizen). Cp. chamberer, one of wanton habits, Othello, iii. 3. 265.

chamber-lie, see lye.

chamelot, a name originally applied to some beautiful and costly eastern fabric, camlet. Water Chamelot, camlet with a wavy or watered surface. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 45; Holland, Pliny, i. 228; Bacon, New Atlantis (ed. 1650, p. 3). OF. chamelot (LittrÉ).

chamfered, furrowed, wrinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 23. OF. chanfraindre, to chamfer, to furrow, also, to bevel an edge. Possibly for chant-fraindre, which may = Med. L. cantum frangere, to break the edge or side.

champian, champion, the champaign, level open country, Bible, Deut. xi. 30; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 29; Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 173; Gosson, School of Abuse, 29.

chandry, chandrie, short for chandlery, the place where candles were kept in a household; ‘Six torches from the chandry’, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Notch). OF. chandel(l)erie.

changeling, a half-witted person. In Middleton’s play ‘The Changeling’, the reference is to Antonio, who enters ‘disguised as an idiot’, A. i, sc. 2. To play the changeling, to play the fool, Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Mis. Knavesby). See EDD. (s.v. Change. 8).

chank, to champ, to eat noisily. Golding, Metam. viii. 292 (fol. 97), viii. 825 (fol. 105, back).

channel, the neck. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, 1. 3 (Calyphus). See cannel.

channel-bone, the collar-bone, clavicle. Chapman, Iliad, xvii. 266; Holinshed, Chron. iii. 805; Kyd, Soliman, i. 4. 55. See cannel.

chapine, a high-heeled shoe. Massinger, Renegado, i. 2 (Donusa); Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). Span. chapin, a woman’s high cork shoes (Minsheu). See choppine.

char, chare, car, chariot. Surrey, A Complaint by Night, 4; Sackville, Induction, st. 7. F. char, a chariot (Cotgr.).

character, handwriting. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 6. 6; Meas. for M. iv. 2. 208. F. caractere, a form of writing (Cotgr.).

chare, chary, careful. Golding, tr. Ovid, Met. xiv. 336 (ed. 1593); dear, Golding, Calvin on Deut. xxiii. 134.

chare, charre, a turn of work, an odd job or business. Ant. and Cl. iv. 15. 75; Chare, to do a turn of work, esp. in phr. (This) char(re is char’d, this bit of business is done, Sir Thos. More, iii. 1. 118; Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Old Plays, ii. 375; Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce 392); ‘Here’s two chewres chewred’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Bobadilla). See EDD. (s.v. Chare, sb.¹). OE. cerr, a turn, ‘temporis spatium’ (B. T.).

charet(t, a car, chariot. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 32; Bible, Exod. xiv. 6; 2 Kings ix. 16; charettes, carts, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). F. charette, a chariot (Cotgr.).

charm, the blended sound of harmonious notes, as of music, children’s voices or song-birds. Milton, P. L. iv. 642; Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Pomona); Bunyan, The Holy War (Temple ed., 293); Udall, Erasmus (ed. 1548, Luke ii, fol. xxxii a); charme, to make a melodious sound, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 13. ‘Charm’ is in gen. prov. use in the midland and southern counties in the sense of a confused murmuring sound of many voices, of birds, bees, &c.; see EDD. (s.v. Charm, sb.¹). See chirm.

charm, to control, to silence, as if by a strong charm. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, v. 1 (Russell). Also, to induce to speak, as by a charm, Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, ii. 1 (Rhetias).

charneco, charnico, a species of sweet wine. From a village so called near Lisbon (Steevens). 2 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 63; Charnico, Puritan Widow, iv. 3. 89; Heywood, Maid of West, iii (Wks. ed. 1874, ii. 301). See Stanford.

chartel, a ‘cartel’, a written challenge. B. Jonson, i. 5 (or 4): Bobadil. Span. cartel, Ital. cartello, dimin. of carta, paper, letter.

chase, a hunting-ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 137; Titus, ii. 3. 255; ‘The chase alwaie open and nothing at all inclosed’, Harrison, Desc. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). Anglo-F. chace, a hunting-ground, a chase (Rough List).

chatillionte, delightful, amusing. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, iv. 2 (Lurewell). F. chatouillant, pr. pt. of chatouiller, to tickle, to provoke with delight (Cotgr.).

chauf, to chafe, heat, vex. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 2; chauffed, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 33. OF. chaufer (F. chauffer), to warm.

chave, for ich have, I have. Peele, Araygnement of Paris, i. 1 (Pan). See ch.

chawne, a gap, fissure. Holland, Pliny, i. 37; to gape open, id. i. 435; to cause to gape open, to rive asunder, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 1 (Andrugio); ‘Crevasser, to chop, chawn . . . rive’, Cotgrave. ‘Chawn’ is in prov. use in the Midlands for a crack in the ground caused by dry weather, see EDD. (s.v. Chaum). See choane.

cheasell, gravel. Turbervile, Epitaph II. on Master Win, st. 5. Cp. the Chesil Bank (Portland), Chiselhurst, Kent. ME. chisel or gravel, ‘arena, sabulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 82), OE. ceosel, cysel, gravel.

cheat, wheaten bread of the second quality. Chapman, Batrachom., 3; Drayton, Polyolb. xvi, p. 959; cheat bread, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Chough); Eastward Hoe, v. 1 (Mrs. T.); cheat loaf, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs, vol. vi, p. 123; Corbet, Poetica Stromata (Nares). Bread of the first quality was called manchet. See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.²).

cheat (Thieves’ Cant), used in general sense ‘thing’, gen. preceded by some descriptive word. The Cheate (= treyning cheate), the gallows, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 28; cackling-cheate, the domestic fowl, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Prigg); grunting cheate, a pig (id.); belly-cheat, an apron, id. ii. 1 (Higgen). See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.¹ 3). See backcheat.

cheator, a cheat. Esp. used of one who lived by cheating at dice; Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Quadratus).

check (in Hawking), a false stoop, when a hawk forsakes her proper game, and pursues rooks, doves, &c. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Maria); to fly at check, Dryden, Ann. Mirab. st. 86; check, base game, rooks, &c, Drayton, Pol. xx. 217; Turbervile, Falconrie, 110.

checked, chequered, variegated. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 18; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 83; spelt chequed, ‘The chequed, and purple-ringed daffodillies’, B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd).

checker-approved, approved by one who checks, a controller. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). See NED. (s.v. Checker, sb.¹ 1).

checklaton, a cloth of rich material; ‘A Jacket, quilted richly rare Upon checklaton’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 43. OF. chiclaton, also ciclaton (Godefroy). The ME. form was ciclatun (syklatoun); see Juliana, 8, and Chaucer, C. T. B. 1924. See NED. (s.v. Ciclatoun).

chedreux, a kind of perruque. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Sir Fopling); Oldham, tr. of Juvenal, Sat. iii. 191. From the maker’s name. Also Shaddrew (NED.).

chequin, an Italian gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Pericles, iv. 2. 28 (chickeens in ed. 1608); B. Jonson, Volpone, i (last speech but 8 of Volpone). See Dict. (s.v. Sequin), and Stanford. See cecchin.

cherry, to cherish, cheer, delight. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 22. F. chÉrir, to hold dear.

cherry-pit, a children’s game, in which cherry-stones were thrown into a pit or small hole. Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 129; Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1 (Cuddy).

cheve, to bring to an end, to finish; ‘I cheve, I bring to an ende, Je aschieve’, Palsgrave. OF. chever, to finish (NED.).

cheve, chive, to befall, happen to. Phr. foul cheeve him, ill befall him, Sir A. Cockain, Obstinate Lady, iii. 2; foul chive him, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. Merry Thought).

cheveril, kid-leather; used allusively as a type of pliability. Twelfth Nt. iii. i. 13; B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). ME. cheverel, ‘ledyr’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. cheveril (Rough List), deriv. of OF. chevre, a goat.

chevin, cheven, the chub. Book of St. Albans, fol. F 7, back; Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 244; ‘Chevesne, a chevin’, Cotgrave. ‘Cheven’ is a Yorks. word for the chub (EDD.). OF. chevesne; see Hatzfeld (s.v. Chevanne).

chevisaunce, merchandise, gain (in a bad sense). Coverdale, Deut. xxi. 14. ME. chevisaunce (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1519). OF. chevissance, ‘pactum, transactio, conventio’. Med. L. chevisantia (Ducange).

chevisaunce (as used by Spenser and his imitators), enterprise, achievement, expedition on horseback, chivalry, F. Q. ii. 9. 8.

che vor: in phr. che vor ye. The meaning seems to be ‘I warrant you’, King Lear, iv. 6. 246, but the relationship or etymology of the word vor has not yet been discovered; nothing like it is known to exist in prov. use. Che vore ’un, (?) I warrant him, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). Cha vore thee is found in The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, ii. 3 (Tenacity), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 345, ‘What will you give me? Cha vore thee, son . . . Chill give thee a vair piece of three half-pence’. (Here, cha vore thee may be West dialect for ‘I have for thee.’)

chewet, chewit, a chough, fig. a chatterer. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 29. F. chouette, a chough, jackdaw (Cotgr.).

chewet, a dish of meat or fish, chopped fine and mixed with spices and fruits. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Francisca).

chewre, a turn of work; see chare.

Cheyney; see Philip.

chiarlatan, a mountebank or Cheap Jack who descants volubly to a crowd. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 971; ciarlitani, pl., B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Volpone, Speech, 3). Ital. ciarlatano, a babbler, mountebank, fr. ciarlare, to babble; whence F. charlatan, ‘a pratling quack-salver’ (Cotgr.).

chiaus(e, a Turkish messenger, sergeant, or lictor. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 2. 25. Turkish chāush.

chiause, chouse, one easily cheated, a dupe, gull. Newcastle, The Variety, in Dramatis Personae (‘A country Chiause’). [Cp. Johnson’s Dict., A chouse, a man fit to be cheated.]

chiause, chowse, v., to chouse, to cheat. ‘Chiaus’d by a scholar!’, Shirley, Honoria, ii. 3 (Conquest); ‘And sows of sucking-pigs are chowsed’, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 114, also l. 1010.

chibbal, a young onion with the green stalk attached, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); chibal, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (2 Gipsy). ‘Chibbal’ (‘chibble’) is in gen. prov. use in the Midlands and south-west country, see EDD. (s.v. Chibbole). ME. chibolle (P. Plowman, B. vi. 296). OF. (Picard) chibole (F. ciboule); L. cepulla, dimin. of cepa, onion.

chibrit, sulphur. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt kibrit (NED.). Arab. kibrīt, sulphur; cp. Heb. gophrīth, Aramaic, kubrīth.

chiches, chick-peas. B. Jonson, tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry (L. ciceris, l. 249); spelt chittes, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, iv. 10; Udall, Apoph., Diogenes, 47. F. chiches, ‘sheeps-cich-peason, chiches’ (Cotgr.); OF. chiche (Roman. Rose, 6911).

chiefrie, the payment of rent or dues to an Irish chief. Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 663).

chievance, raising of money. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 64). F. ‘chevance, wealth, substance, riches’ (Cotgr.).

child: phr. to be with child, used fig., to be full of expectation. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King); also, to long after, desire vehemently, id., Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Viola).

Child Rowland, a young knight; with reference to a scrap of an old ballad. King Lear, iii. 4. 187; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 16.

chilis, a large vein. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2. 4 (where it is equated to vena cava). Dyce’s note says—‘Out of the gibbosyte . . . of the liuer there issueth a veyne called concava or chilis’, Traheron, Vigo’s Workes of Chirurgerie, 1571, fol. ix. Gk. φλὲψ κοίλη, vena cava.

chill; as in I chill, for Ich ’ill, I will. ‘Tell you I chyll’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 1. See ch.

china-house, a china-shop. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Subtle).

chinchard, a niggard, miser. Spelt chyncherde, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2517. ME. chinche, a niggard (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2793); Norm. F. chinche, ‘mesquin avare’ (Moisy).

chinclout, a muffler covering the lower part of the face. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 3 (Follywit). Cp. muffler in Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73.

chine, to divide or break the back of. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 13. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 6; ‘Eschiner (Échiner), to chine, to break the back of’, Cotgrave. In everyday use in Suffolk (EDD.).

chink, a bed-bug. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess). Also spelt chinch. Span. chinche, a bug; L. cimex.

chink, a piece of money. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503.

chire, a slender blade of grass, a sprout. Spelt chyer, Drayton, Harmony, Song Solomon, ch. ii, l. 3. ME. chire, ‘genimen’ (Cath. Angl.).

chirm, a confused noise, the mingled din or noise of many birds or voices. Spelt chyrme, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 5; churm, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 170). See charm.

chirr, to chirp like a grasshopper; ‘The chirring grasshopper’, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 16.

chitterling, a frill, ruff; esp. the frill down the breast of a shirt. Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 310; Gascoigne, Delic Diet Droonkardes (NED.). For examples of prov. use see EDD. (s.v. 4).

chitterlings, the smaller intestines of the pig, &c., esp. when fried or boiled. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo); Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 120. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

chitty-face, one who has a thin pinched face; used as a term of contempt; ‘You half-fac’d groat, you thin-cheek’d chitty-face’, Munday, Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, v. 1 (Jailer), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 188; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 2 (Spungius); ‘Chittiface, puellulus, improbulus’, Coles, Dict. (1679); ‘A chittiface, proprie est facies parva et exigua’, Minsheu, Ductor (1617). OF. chiche-face (chiche-fache), lean face (Godefroy). The word occurs in Rabelais, i. 183 (ed. Jaunet). From this word comes the perverted form chichevache (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1188), the name of a fabulous monster said to feed on patient wives.

chival, a horse; ‘Upon the captive chivals’ (in captivis equis), Turbervile, Ovid’s Ep., 148 b; Mucedorus, Induction, 29, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 204; but here chival may be for ’chieval, achieval, achievement.

chive, cive, a small kind of onion or garlic; ‘Escurs, the little sallad herb called Cives or Chives’, Cotgrave. F. cive (North F. chive), onion; L. cepa, onion.

chive; see cheve.

choane, a cleft, rift, fissure; ‘Fendasse, a cleft, choane’, Cotgrave. See chawne.

choke-pear, a rough, harsh pear; also, something impossible to swallow or get over. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 321); Mydas, iv. 3 (end).

choplogic, a contentious, sophistical arguer. Awdelay, Fratern. of Vacabondes, p. 15. Shortened to choploge; ‘Choploges or greate pratlers’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Merygreek).

choppine, a kind of shoe raised above the ground by means of a cork sole or the like. Hamlet, ii. 2. 445; ‘Pianelloni, great pattins or choppins’, Florio; ‘Corke shooes, chopines’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, iii. 1 (Tissefew). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). See chapine.

chreokopia, a cancelling of debts, or of a part of a debt. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. χρεωκοπία, a cutting off of debt.

Christ-cross, Chriss-cross, Crisscross, a cross (✠) placed at the beginning of the alphabet in a horn-book. Hence, Christcross-row, the alphabet, Two Angry Women, v. 1 (Mall); shortened to cross-row, Richard III, i. 1. 55. A similar cross was sometimes used (instead of XII) to mark noon on a clock or dial; hence ‘the Chrisse-crosse of Noone’, Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 85; see Nares.

Christ-tide, Christmas. A term for Christmas, used by Puritans, to avoid the use of the word mass. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Ananias) See NED.

chrysopoeia, the making of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. χρυσοποιία.

chrysosperm, seed of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Gk. χρυσός, gold + σπέρμα, seed.

chuck, darling; a term of endearment. Hen. V, iii. 2. 20; Macbeth, iii. 2. 45; ‘His chuck, that is, his wife’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 68 (ed. Arber, p. 94). See EDD. (s.v. Chuck, sb.¹ 4).

chuff, a rustic, a clown. Generally applied opprobriously to any person disliked, esp. a rude coarse fellow. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 93; a churlish miser, Nashe, P. Pennilesse (NED.); Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Medina). In prov. use in the sense of surly, ill-tempered, see EDD. (s.v. Chuff, adj.¹ 1). ME. choffe or chuffe, ‘rusticus’ (Prompt.).

church-book, (1) the Bible; (2) the parish register. Both senses are quibbled upon; Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (1 Lawyer).

ciarlitani; see chiarlatan.

cibation, a process in alchemy; lit. ‘a feeding’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol). From L. cibus, food.

cinoper, ‘cinnabar’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Cp. MHG. zinober.

cinque-pace, a kind of lively dance. Much Ado, ii. 1. 77. F. cinq pas, lit. five paces; LittrÉ gives cinq pas et trois visages (five paces, three faces) as the name of an old French dance.

cioppino, a ‘chopine’. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Hedon). See choppine.

circling: phr. a circling boy, i.e. a kind of roarer, one who circumvented and cheated his dupes. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 2 (Edgworth). See Nares.

circular, going round-about, indirect. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Physician).

circumstance, detailed and circuitous narration; details, particulars; ‘Without circumstance’, i.e. without further details, Romeo, v. 3. 181; ceremony, formality, ‘Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war’, Othello, iii. 3. 355.

citronise, to bring to the colour of citron; a process in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle).

cittern-headed, ugly; because the head of the cittern (a kind of guitar) was often grotesquely carved to resemble a human head. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). The citterns were mostly found in barbers’ shops.

†city-wires (?); ‘His cates . . . Be fit for ladies: some for lords, knights, ’squires; Some for your waiting-wench, and city-wires’, B. Jonson, Epicoene (Prologue).

civil, sober, grave, not gay; said of colour. Romeo, iii. 2. 10; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria); ‘civil-suited Morn’, Milton, Il Pens., 122.

clack-dish, a wooden dish with a lid, carried and clacked by beggars as an appeal for contributions. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 2 (Gerardine). See clapdish.

clad, to clothe. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 4; Peele, Poems, ed. Dyce p. 602.

cladder, a man of loose and vicious manners. (Cant.) ‘Cladders? Yes, catholic lovers’, Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Bright and Aurelia).

clair-voyant, clear-sighted, having good insight. Clara voyant, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 1 (end).

clamper up, to gather up together hastily. Ascham, Toxophilus, (ed. Arber, 83). [Sir W. Scott uses the expression ‘to clamper up a story’, in a letter to Joanna Baillie (Feb. 10, 1822).]

clap, a sudden stroke of misfortune; a touch of disrepute. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4. 3; to catch a clap, to meet with a mischance, Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 1 (Wise Woman).

clapdish, a wooden dish for alms with a cover that shut with a clapping noise, used by lepers and other mendicants. Massinger, Parl. of Love, ii. 2 (Leonora); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See clack-dish.

clapper, a rabbit-burrow. Tusser, Husbandry, § 36. 25; ‘As a cony . . . in his claper’, Fabyan, Chron. pt. vii, an. 1294-5 (p. 395). ‘Clapier, a clapper of conies’, Cotgrave. A Dorset word for a rabbit-hole (EDD.). O. Prov. clapier, ‘garenne privÉe’ (Levy).

clapperclaw, to beat, to maul. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 67; Tr. and Cr. v. 4. 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland (EDD.).

clapperdudgeon, a cant name for a beggar; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. i. 4; Greene, George-a-Greene (l. 909), ed. Dyce, p. 265, col. 1; Harman, Caveat, p. 44. Cp. clapper, the lid of a beggar’s clap-dish; dudgeon was the name of a kind of wood for making handles of knives, &c.

clarissimo, a grandee. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 6. A Span. word, lit. most illustrious.

clary, clare, a pot-herb, the Salvia Sclarea, supposed to be good for the eyes, and so by pop. etym. often spelt Cleare-eie, Clear-eye; ‘Spirits of clare to bathe our temples in’, Davenant, The Wits, v (Thwack); spelt clary, ‘Clary quasi Clear Eye’, W. Coles, Adam in Eden, xxiii. 47. See NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.²).

clary, a sweet liquor made of wine, clarified honey, and spices. Congreve, Way of World, iv. 5 (Mirabell); Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii. 1 (Lord Rake). ME. clarree (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1471). OF. clarÉ, that which is cleared or clarified, see NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.¹).

classhe. See closh.

claw, to stroke; hence, to flatter. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 186; Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 1 (Piero); Much Ado, i. 3. 18. Phr. claw me, I’ll claw thee, ‘We saye, clawe me, clawe thee’, Tyndal, Expos. John (ed. 1537, 72), see NED.; to claw the back, to flatter, Hall, Sat. i. prol. 11. ‘Claw’ means to flatter in Leic. and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 7).

clawback, one who strokes the back; a flatterer; ‘These flattering clawbackes’, Latimer, 2 Sermon bef. King, p. 64; Mirror for Mag., Iago, st. 6; ‘Blandisseur, a flattering sycophant or clawback’, Cotgrave. So in north Yorks. and Leic., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 10 (b)).

clear, very drunk. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

cleave the pin; see pin.

cleaze; see clee.

clee, a claw; ‘Pied d’un cancre, the clee or claw of a crab’, Cotgrave; ‘The clee of a bittor’, Turbervile, Falconrie, 349; cleaze pl., Phaer, tr. Aeneid, viii. 209; Studley, Seneca’s Hercules, 206 b (NED.). See EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cle, ‘ungula’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. clēa. Cp. cleye.

cleeves, cliffs; ‘Dover’s neighbouring cleeves’, Drayton, Pol. xviii; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 62. ME. clefe of an hyll, ‘declivum’ (Prompt.). Due to OE. cleofu, the plural form, or to cleofe, the dat. of clif. ‘Cleeve’ is very common in place-names in the west of England: Cleeve (Clyffe Pypard) in Wilts.; Church Cleves in Dorset; Old Cleeve, Huish Cleeve, Bitter Cleeve in Somerset.

clem, to starve for want of food. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Shift); Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). To ‘clem’ (or to ‘clam’) is the ordinary word for starving in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.² 1). The lit. meaning of clam (clem) is ‘to pinch’, still used in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.¹ 1. Cp. Dan. klemme, Sw. klÄmma, to pinch.

clench, clinch, a pun. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 83; Prologue to Tr. and Cr. (1679), 27.

clenchpoop, a lout, a clown; a term of contempt. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. vi, ch. xxxi, st. 22; clinchpoop, or clenchpoop, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 256.

clepe, to call. L. L. L. v. 1. 24; Hamlet, i. 4. 19. The pp. is spelt cleeped in Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Pogio); the usual form is the archaic y-clept, spelt y-clep’d in Milton, L’Allegro, 12. OE. clipian, cleopian, to call; pp. ge-cleopod.

clergion, a young songster, fig. of birds. Surrey, Description Restless State, 22; Poems, 72; in Tottel’s Misc. 231. ME. clergeon, a chorister (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1693). F. clergeon.

clergy, clerkly skill, learning. Proverb, ‘An Ounce of Mother-Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy (or Book-learning)’, see NED.; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3 (Purge). The privilege of exemption from sentence which might be pleaded by every one who could read; ‘Stand to your clergy, uncle, save your life’, Munday, Death Huntington, i. 3, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 244. Clergy of belly, respite claimed by a pregnant woman. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 884. ME. clergy: ‘Lewdnesse of clergy, illiteratura’ (Prompt. EETS., 261).

cleye, a claw. Marlowe, tr. Lucan, bk. i, l. 36 from end; B. Jonson, Underwoods, Eupheme, ix. 18; ‘The cleyes of a lobster’, Skinner (1671). ‘Cley’ is an E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cley of a beast, ‘ungula’ (Prompt. EETS., 85, see note, no. 383). Cp. clee.

clicket, to be maris appetens, to copulate. Massinger, Picture, iii. 4 (Eubulus); Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius); Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 9. As a hunting term, it had reference to the fox and the wolf; see Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66, p. 186; c. 75, p. 205.

cliffe, a clef, key, in music. Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 11; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1. 159. F. clef.

clift, a cliff. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 79; p. 90, col. 1; clifte, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 23. The E. Anglian form (EDD.).

clighte; see clitch.

Clim of the Clough, a proverbially famous archer. Clement of the Glen, in the ballad of Adam Bell. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed. Hazlitt, i. 72; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i (Face). Clem a Clough, Drayton, Pastorals, vi. 36.

clinch; see clench.

cling, to cause to shrink, shrivel; ‘Till famine cling thee’, Macbeth, v. 5. 40. Cp. prov. use in Ireland and in the north of England, where the word means to wither, contract, also, of cattle, to become thin from want of proper food, see EDD. (s.v. Cling, vb.¹ 4). ME. clyngyn, to shrink, to shrivel (Prompt.). OE. clingan, ‘marcere’ (Ælfric).

clip, to embrace. Wint. Tale, v. 2. 59; Coriolanus, i. 6. 29; iv. 5. 115. Still in use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. clippen (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. lii. 1344). OE. clyppan.

clip, to go fast, to run swiftly. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 86. A Suffolk use; see EDD. (s.v. Clip, vb.² 11).

clipped, uttered aloud; ‘Thy clipped name’, Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2 (near the end). See clepe.

clips, clyps, ‘eclipse’. Berners, tr. of Froissart, ch. 130. Common in the north (EDD.). ME. Clypps of Þe son or Þe mone, ‘eclipsis’ (Prompt.).

clitch, to bend, clench (the fist). Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 145 (NED.); clighte, pp., Bossewell, Armorie, ii. 119^b. Cp. the west country clitch, to grasp tightly (EDD.). OE. clycchan, pp. geclyht.

clogdogdo, a term of contempt. B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 1 (Otter). A nonce-word.

close fight, a sea term; a kind of screen used in a naval engagement. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). See fights.

closh, clash, the name of an old game, played with a ball or bowl. Spelt claisshe, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 27, § 8. See Cowell’s Interpreter and Strutt’s Sports. Closh was orig. the name of the bowl. Du. klos, a wooden Boule (Hexham).

closure, bound, limit, circuit. Richard III, iii. 3. 11; an entrenchment, fortress, Greene, Looking Glasse (ed. 1861, p. 123); Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 296. OF. closure, confine, limits (Dialoge Greg., 74); Late L. clausura, a castle, fort (Justinian).

clote, the yellow water-lily; Nuphar lutea. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 2. 12. Still in use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clote, (1)). OE. clāte, which was the name of various plants resembling the burdock, see NED.

clottered, clotted. Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 14; ‘CongrÉe, congealed, clottered’, Cotgrave. Du. kloteren, or klonteren, ‘to curdle or growe thick as milke doth’ (Hexham). See cluttered.

clout, a piece of cloth or linen, a rag. Hamlet, ii. 2. 537; Richard III, i. 3. 177; hence, clouted, patched, Bible, Joshua ix. 5. In prov. use, esp. in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, sb.¹ 3).

clout, a square piece of canvas, which formed the mark to be aimed at, at the archery butts, L. L. L. iv. 1. 138; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52.

clout, to cuff heavily, Bible, 2 Sam. xxii. 39; clouted, pp. hit, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, iii. 7. 1. In gen. vulgar use, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, vb.² 1).

clouted; of cream: clotted, by scalding milk. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 99; Borde, Dyetarie, 267. A Devon word (EDD.).

clowre, grassy surface, turf. In pl. clowres; Golding, Metam. iv. 301. (L. cespite); viii. 756 (L. terram). ME. clowre, grassy ground (Lydgate).

cloy, to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing; ‘I cloye a horse, I drive a nayle in to the quycke of his foote, jencloue’, Palsgrave; to pierce as with a nail, to gore, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 48; to spike a gun, Beaumont and Fl., The False One, v. 4 (Photinus). OF. cloyer (F. clouer), to nail, deriv. of OF. clo (F. clou), a nail.

cloyer, a pick-pocket’s accomplice. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.

cloyne, a clown, rustic. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 44. The word clown (cloyne) was a late introduction from some Low German source, originally meaning ‘clod, lump’, see NED.

cloyne, cloine, to act deceitfully or fraudulently. Bale, Sel. Wks. (ed. 1849, p. 170 (NED.)); to take furtively, to steal away, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, vi. 524; vii. 364. Probably the same word as OF. cluigner, clugner, cluyner (F. cligner), to wink, often as the expression of secret understanding, cunning, or hypocrisy. See NED.

club, a country fellow; ‘Homely and playn clubbes of the countrey’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14; ‘Hertfordshire clubs and clouted shoon’, Ray, Eng. Proverbs, 310. Cp. ME. clubbyd, ‘rudis’ (Prompt.).

clubfist, a thick-fisted ruffian. Mirror for Magistrates, Sabrine, st. 10.

clubs! A popular cry to call out the London apprentices, who had clubs for their weapons; also, a cry to call out citizens; as in Romeo, i. 1. 80. There are frequent allusions to this cry; ‘Cry clubs for prentices’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 2 (All).

clunch, a clodhopper; ‘Casois, a countrey clown, boore, clunch, hinde’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cumberland, Lancashire, and E. Yorks. (EDD.). See NED.

clunch, to clench; ‘His fist is clunched’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 20; ed. Arber, p. 41.

clunged, drawn together by the action of cold; ‘By the Northern winds . . . clunged and congealed withall’, Holland, Pliny, i. 513; ‘The Earth made clunged with the cold of winter’, B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (NED.).

cluttered, clotted. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Alberto); ‘EngrommelÉ, clotted, cluttered, curded thick’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cheshire and Shropshire (EDD.). See clottered.

cly (thieves’ cant), to seize, take; to steal (NED.). Phr. to cly the Jerk, to be whipped, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. In Lower Rhenish dialect klauen (klÄuen, kleuen) is used in the sense of ‘steal’. See NED.

coals: phr. to carry coals, to be very servile, to submit to insults. Romeo, i. 1. 2. See colcarrier.

coal-sleck, coal-dust. Drayton, Pol. iii. 280. Cp. prov. E. sleck, slack, small coal.

coart, to confine, restrain; ‘Streatly coarted’, Skelton, Why come ye not, 438; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 138. L. co-arctare, to compress, from arctus, close.

coast, cost(e, the side. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 294; the border, frontier of a country, Bible, Mark vii. 31; Judges i. 18; phr. on even coast, on even terms, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 17. OF. coste (F. cÔte).

coast, to keep by the side of a person moving. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid Mill, i. 1; to march on the flank of, Berners, Froissart, i. 40. 55; to move in a roundabout course, fig. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 38; to skirt, Milton, P. L. iv. 782; spelt cost, to approach, Spenser, Daphnaida, st. 6; Venus and Adonis, 870.

coat; see cote.

coat-card, a playing card bearing a ‘coated’ figure (king, queen, or knave). In regular use till the Revolution, 1688; afterwards perverted into Court-card. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Madrigal). Also, coat, Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Cook); B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1.

coath, to faint, to swoon away. Skinner, 1671 (a Lincoln word); ‘To coath (swoon away), Animo linqui, deficere’, Coles, 1679. ‘Coath’ is still used in this sense in E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cothe, or swownyng, ‘sincopa’ (Prompt.). OE. coÐu, disease; cp. coe, a word for a disease of sheep, cattle in W. Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coe, sb.¹ 1). See quoth.

cob, the head of a red herring. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. (Wks., 1873, ii. 147); ‘A herring cob, la teste d’un harang sor’, Sherwood.

cob, cobbe, a wealthy man; a miser; ‘Ryche cobbes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 149; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, ii. 27 (NED.).

cobbe, a male swan; ‘The hee swanne is called the cobbe, and the she-swanne the penne’, Best, Farm. Bks. (ed. 1856, p. 122). Hence cob-swan, B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia). ‘Cob’ is still in use in Norfolk (EDD.).

cockal(l, a knucklebone of a sheep, with which boys played ‘knucklebones’. Herrick, The Temple, 59; the game played, Cotgrave (s.v. Tales). See Nares.

cockall, a paragon, a pattern, of supreme excellence; ‘He was the very cockall of a husband’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2. 6.

cockatrice, a name for the basilisk, a serpent supposed to kill by its mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock’s egg. Bible, Isaiah lix. 5; Romeo, iii. 2. 47; applied to a woman of loose life, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev. iv. 1; Killigrew’s Pandora (Nares). Orig. a name for the crocodile. OF. caucatris (cocatris), crocodile; Med. L. caucatrices, ‘crocodili’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. calcatris, crocodile (Levy). See NED.

cock-a-two, cock of two, a cock that has conquered two, a conqueror of two. Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (La Writ). See Nares.

cockers, leggings, gaiters. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 59. In prov. use from the north country to the W. Midlands and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cokeres (P. Plowman, C. Text, ix. 59). Probably the same word as OE. cocor, a quiver.

cocket, a ship’s certificate that goods for export had paid duty. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, ll. 258, 1058. Anglo-F. cokette, app. the seal with which the certificate was assured (Rough List).

cocket, pert, saucy, stuck up. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 5 (song); Coles Dict. 1677. In prov. use from north country to the W. Midlands, meaning ‘pert, saucy’, also, ‘brisk, merry, lively’ (EDD.).

cockledemois, pl. (perhaps) a natural product of some kind representing money. Chapman, Mask of the Middle Temple, § 2. (Not found elsewhere, except as Cockledemoy, the name of a knave in Marston’s Dutch Courtezan). Dr. H. Bradley suggests that this word may represent Port. coquÍlho de moeda; coquÍlho, fruit of an Indian palm; moeda, money.

cockloche, a term of reproach or contempt, a mean fellow, a silly coxcomb. Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Clare); spelt cocoloch, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Triumph of Honour, sc. 1 (Nicodemus). F. coqueluche, a hood, also a person who is all the vogue. See Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

Cock Lorel, the name of the owner and captain of the boat containing jovial reprobates of all trades in a sarcastic poem, Cocke Lorelles Bote, printed c. 1515; used also allusively with the sense of ‘rogue’; ‘Here is fyrst, Cocke Lorell the Knyght’ (ed. 1843, p. 4); ‘Cock-Lorrell would needs have the Devill his guest’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (Song). See Lorel.

cockney, (1) a cockered child, a child tenderly brought up, hence (2) a squeamish, foppish, effeminate fellow. (1) Tusser, Husbandry, 183; Baret, Alvearie, C. 729; (2) Twelfth Nt. iv. 1. 15; a squeamish woman, King Lear, ii. 4. 123. ME. cokenay, an effeminate person (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4208); coknay, ‘delicius’ (Prompt.).

cockqueene; the same as cuckquean.

cockshut time, twilight. Richard III, v. 3. 70. The twilight, or dim light in which woodcocks could most easily be caught in cockshuts. A cockshut, or cockshoot, was a broadway or glade in a wood, through which woodcocks might dart or shoot, and in which they might be caught with nets; see EDD. ‘A fine cock-shoot evening’, Middleton, The Widow, iii. 1. 6; cp. Arden of Feversham, iii. 2. 47.

cocksure, absolutely secure. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Court, 279; Conflict of Conscience, iii. 3. 1 (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 67); with absolute security, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94.

cocoloch; see cockloche.

cocted, boiled. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. coctus, pp. of coquere, to cook.

cod, a bag, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 2 (Corin); a civet-bag, musk-bag, B. Jonson, Epigrams, xix; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). OE. codd, a bag.

coddle, to parboil, to stew; ‘To codle, coctillo’, Coles, Dict. 1679; ‘I’ll have you coddled’ (alluding to ‘Prince Pippin’), Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 31. See Dict. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coddle, vb.³ 1).

codes!, coads-nigs!, cuds me!, ejaculations of surprise, no doubt orig. profane. Codes! Codes!, Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, i. 2 (Diagoras). Coads-nigs!, Middleton, Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Freedom); Cuds me, ib. (Lucre).

cod’s-head, a stupid fellow, a blockhead. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall). In prov. use in Derbysh. (EDD.).

coffin, pie-crust, raised crust of a pie. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy sen.); Titus And. v. 2. 189. So in prov. use in Lincolnsh. and Hertfordsh., see EDD. (s.v. Coffin, 5).

coft(e, pp. bought. Mirror for Magistrates, Clarence, st. 49; Dalrymple, Leslie’s Hist. Scotland (NED.). M. Dutch coft(e, pret., and gecoft (mod. gecocht), pp. of copen, to buy (Verdam); cp. G. kaufen.

cog, to cheat, deceive, Much Ado, v. 1. 95; to employ feigned flattery, to fawn. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 76; Richard III, i. 3. 48. Still in use in Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Cog, vb.⁴ 2).

cogge, a kind of ship; chiefly, a ship for transport. Morte Arthur, leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3; cogg, a cock-boat, Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xiv. 58. OF. cogue (Godefroy).

coggle, to coggle in, to flatter continually. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Mido). See cog.

cohobation, a process in alchemy; a repeated distillation. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). See NED.

coil, coyle, to beat, thrash; ‘I shall coil them’, Jacob and Esau, v. 4 (near the end); Roister Doister, iii. 3, l. 7 from end; ‘I coyle ones kote, I beate hym, je bastonne,’ Palsgrave. Hence coiling, a beating, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 15. ‘Coil’ has still this meaning in Northumberland, see EDD. (s.v. Coil, vb.³).

Cointree, Coventry. Cointree blue, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 63.

†coistered; ‘There were those at that time who, to try the strength of a man’s back and his arm, would be coister’d’, Marston, Malcontent, v. 1. 10. Meaning unknown.

coistril, used as a term of contempt, a low varlet; spelt coystrill Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 43; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2. 137 (Downright). Cp. coistrel, in use in the north country in the sense of a raw, inexperienced lad (EDD.); ‘A coistrel, adolescentulus’, Coles Dict. 1679.

colcarrier, colecarier, a coal-carrier, a low dependant, cringing sycophant; lit. one who will carry coals for another. Golding, tr. of Ovid, The Epistle, p. 2, l. 86. See coals.

Cold-harbour, Cole-arbour, an old building in Dowgate Ward. Westward Ho, iv. 2 (Justinians); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 3 (Morose); Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). For an account of the great house called Cold Harbrough, see Stow’s Survey, Dowgate Ward (ed. Thoms, 88. 89).

cole, coal, money. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). To post the cole, to pay the money. See NED. (s.v. Cole, sb.³).

coleharth, a coal-hearth, or place where a fire has been made; ‘An Harte passeth by some coleharthes . . . the hote sent of the fire smoothreth the houndes’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; pp. 114-15.

coleprophet; see col-prophet.

coles: in phr. precious coles, a kind of minced oath. Gascoigne, Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 80); Return from Parnassus (ed. Arber, 50). See NED. (s.v. Precious).

colestaff; see cowl-staff.

colice, a strong broth, a ‘cullis’. Lyly, Campaspe, iii. 5 (Apelles). F. ‘coulis, a cullis or broth of boyled meat strained’ (Cotgr.).

coll, to embrace. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 34; an embrace, Middleton, The Witch, i. 2. Still in use in Dorset and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coll, vb.¹). OF. coler (La Curne), deriv. of col (F. cou), neck.

colle-pixie, a goblin, mischievous sprite. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 99. For colt-pixy, a sprite in the form of a colt, which neighs and misleads horses in bogs, a word known in Hants. and Dorset, the Dorset form is cole-pexy, see EDD. (s.v. Colt-pixy).

collet, the part of a ring in which the stone is set. C. Tourneur, Revengers’ Tragedy, i. 1 (Duchess); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 18. Cp. F. collet, a collar (Cotgr.).

collocavit, used grotesquely to denote some kitchen utensil. Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 7 (Merygreek). There seems to be an allusion to collock, q.v.

collock, a large pail; ‘Collock, an old word for a Pail’, Phillips, Coles, 1677. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. colok, ‘canterus’ (Voc. 771. 30).

collogue, to deal flatteringly with any one; ‘Trainer sa parole, to collogue, to flatter, fawn on’, Cotgrave; to feign agreement, Marston and Webster, Malcontent, v. 2; to have a private understanding with, ‘They collogued together’, Wood, Life (ed. 1772, p. 172). In prov. use in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland in three senses: (1) to talk confidentially, (2) to flatter, to wheedle, (3) to plot together for mischief (EDD.). Cp. L. colloq- in colloquium, with change to collogue under the influence of dialogue, duologue, &c.

collow, to make black or dirty with coal-dust or soot; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3. 2; ‘Poisler, to collow, smut, begryme’, Cotgrave; ‘I colowe, I make blake with a cole’, Palsgrave. A Cheshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). ME. colwen, cp. colwyd, ‘carbonatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 91). Cp. colly.

colly, to blacken. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 145; ‘to colly, denigro’, Coles, Dict. 1679. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). See collow.

colon, the largest human intestine. To satisfy colon, to satisfy one’s hunger, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Belgarde); to pacify colon, id., Picture, ii. 1 (Hilario).

colour, a pretence, appearance of right. Two Gent. iv. 2. 3; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 566; colours, ensigns, standards, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 31; to fear no colours, to fear no flags, no enemy, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 6.

colour de roy, bright tawny. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Balurdo). F. ‘couleur de roy, was in old time, Purple; but now is the bright Tawny, which we also tearm Colour de Roy’ (Cotgr.).

colpheg, to buffet or cuff, Edwards, Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 85, col. 1; in Dodsley (ed. 1780, i. 209). See NED. (s.v. Colaphize).

colprophet, a sorcerer, fortune-teller. Mirror for Magistrates, Glendour, st. 31 and st. 34; spelt coleprophet, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, p. 17).

colstaff, colestaff; see cowl-staff.

colt, to befool, to ‘take in’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 39; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 2. From colt (a young horse), used humorously for a young or inexperienced person, one easily taken in. Cp. the prov. use of ‘to colt’, meaning to make a newcomer pay his footing, see EDD. (s.v. Colt, vb.¹ 12).

comand, coming. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). A northern form.

come off, to pay money, pay a debt. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1 Court.); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (end); Merry Wives, iv. 3. 12.

com’esta, how is it? how goes it with you? Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 3 (Spungius). Span. cÓmo estÁ?, how is it?

commandador, a lieutenant; compared to a common sergeant. B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 1 (Sir Pol.). Span. comendador, ‘a commander, lieutenant’ (Minsheu). The Span. vb. comendar orig. meant ‘to commend’.

commandments, ten, ten fingers, or two fists; jocularly. 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 145; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 63. [‘Be busy with the ten commandments’, Longfellow, Span. Student, iii. 2 (Cruzado).] Cp. Span. los diez mandamiÉntos, the ten commandments; ironically, the ten fingers (Stevens).

commedle, to commix, mingle. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 25.

commence, to take the full degree of Master or Doctor in any faculty at a University; to commence doctor, to take a doctor’s degree, Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Chrysapius); Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (Graccho).

commencement, the great public ceremony, esp. at Cambridge, when degrees are conferred at the end of the academical year. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 2 (Common Sense); ‘In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they use the French word Commensement’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, 75).

commodity, wares, merchandise; esp. a parcel of goods sold on credit by a usurer to a needy person, who immediately raised some cash by reselling them at a lower price, often to the usurer himself; ‘He’s in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger’, Measure for M. iv. 3. 5; advantage, profit, ‘I will turn diseases to commodity’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2 (end); Bacon, Essay 41, § 1.

communicate, to share in, partake of; ‘Thousands that communicate our loss’, B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tib.).

communication, conversation, talk. Bible, Luke xxiv. 17; Eph. iv. 29; this rendering of the Gk. λόγος is due to Tyndal, ‘communicacion’; ‘(Cardinal Morton), gentill in communication’, More, Utopia (ed. Arber, 36).

companiable, sociable, companionable. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 217. ME. companyable, ‘socialis’ (Prompt.). A deriv. of OF. compain, orig. nom. of compagnon; Anglo-F. cumpainz (Ch. Rol. 285).

companion, used as term of contempt, a fellow. Com. of Errors, iv. 4. 64; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 102. Cp. the use of kumpÂn (OF. compain) in the MLG. poem Reinke de Vos, 1984 (ed. Bartsch, p. 293).

compass, to obtain, win (an object). Two Gent. ii. 4. 214; Pericles, i. 2. 24; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 28.

compass, range, arc described by an arrow. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 2 (Somerton); Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 145).

complement, that which goes to ‘complete’ the character of a gentleman in regard to external appearance or demeanour. Hen. V, ii. 2. 134; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Carlo).

complimentary, a master of defence, who published works upon the compliments and ceremonies of duelling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites).

compromit, to submit, esp. to submit to a compromise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. F. compromettre, to put unto compromise (Cotgr.).

compter, a ‘counter’, for children to play with. Conflict of Conscience, iv. 5 (Conscience); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 108.

comptible, liable to give an ‘account’ of, sensitive to. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 186.

comrogue, a fellow-rogue. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1. 10; B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom). A jocular word; for comrade. Also comrague, Webster, Appius, iv. 2 (1 Soldier); Heywood and Brome, Lancashire Witches, 1634 (sig. K., Dyce).

con: phr. to con thanks, to acknowledge thanks, to be grateful. All’s Well, iv. 3. 174; Timon, iv. 3. 428. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.¹ 4).

con., short for contra, against; ‘Now for the con’, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet). Cp. the phrase pro and con.

concavite, concave or hollow sphere of the sky; ‘Where is become that azure concavite?’ (riming with infinite), Mirror for Mag., Robert of Normandy, st. 113.

conceit, what is conceived in the mind, conception, idea. Othello, iii. 3. 115; Merch. Venice, iii. 4. 2; faculty of conceiving, mental capacity, As You Like It, v. 2. 60; imagination, fancy, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 263; used of articles of fanciful design, Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 33.

conceited, full of imagination or fancy; ‘The conceited painter’, Lucrece, 1371; disposed to playful fancy, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 3 (Ariosto); B. Jonson, Every Man in Humour, iii. 2. 29; curiously designed, Chapman, Homer, Iliad ix, 85; conceitedly, ingeniously, Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 3 (Vortigern).

conceive, to understand, to take the meaning of (a person); ‘Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet Coz’, Merry Wives, i. 1. 250; Spenser, State Ireland (Works, Globe ed. 666).

concent, harmony, concord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 5; (consent), Hen. V, i. 2. 181. L. concentus, a singing together.

concinnitie, harmony, congruity, propriety. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § last but one. L. concinnitas.

conclusions, to try, to try experiments, or an experiment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 195; Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (near end).

concrew, to grow together. Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 40. Cp. F. concrÛ, pp. of concroÍtre.

cond, taught. Only in Drayton, Pol. xii. 206. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.¹ 5).

condiscend, for condescent, acquiescence, agreement, consent; lit. condescension. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 14. 17.

condition, provision, stipulation; = on condition that, Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 78; Massinger, Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Shirley, Young Admiral, iii. 2 (Fabio); mental disposition, temper, character, Merch. Ven. i. 2. 143; Hen. V, v. 1. 83.

condog, to concur, ‘Concurre? condogge?’, Lyly, Gallathea, i. 1 (Raffe); ‘To agree, concurre, cohere, condog’; Cockeram’s Dict. (1642), second part. A whimsical alteration of concur, made by substituting dog for cur. The usual tale about this word is wholly without foundation; see NED.

conduct, conductor. Richard II, iv. 157; Romeo, iii. 1. 129; v. 3. 116.

conduction, guidance, leadership. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 21 (in Shak. Plut., p. 40, n. 7); Robinson, tr. of Utopia, bk. ii; ed. Arber, p. 138. L. conductio; from conducere, to conduct.

coney, a rabbit. In compounds: Cony-burrow, a rabbit-warren, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando), spelt coney borough, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Medlay); coney-catch, to cheat, dupe, Merry Wives, i. 1. 128; Humour out of Breath, iv. 3 (Hortensio); conie-catcher, a cheat, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 205; coney-garth, a rabbit-warren, Palsgrave; spelt cony gat, Peele, Works (ed. Dyce, p. 579); conyger, Horman, Vulgaria (NED.); conygree, Turbervile, Venerie, 184. For etymology of these ‘coney’ words see NED.

confine, to send beyond the confines, to banish. Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Virginius). Dyce gives five more examples, all from Heywood. And see Dyce’s Webster, p. 375.

confins, inhabitants of adjacent regions. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 12. L. confines, pl., neighbours.

confluent, affluent, abounding in. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad ix, 157. In this sense found only here.

congee, a bow; orig. at taking one’s leave. Dryden, Prol. to The Loyal Brother, 25; Marlowe, Edward II, v. 4; to take ceremonious leave, ‘I have congied with the Duke’, All’s Well, iv. 3. 103. OF. congie, leave of absence, dismission. See Dict.

conglobate, gathered as into a globe, compressed. Dryden, Death of Lord Hastings, 35.

congrue, fitting, suitable; ‘Congrue Latine’, Latin that can be parsed, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15, § 1. F. congru (LittrÉ); L. congruus, agreeing, suitable.

congrue, to agree, accord. Hen. V, i. 2. 182 (Qu.); Hamlet, iv. 3. 66 (Qq.). L. congruere.

conjure, to call upon solemnly, to adjure. Two Gent. ii. 7. 2; Hamlet, iv. 3. 67; to influence by incantation, or the adjuring of spirits, Timon, i. 1. 7; to swear together, to conspire, Milton, P. L. ii. 693; Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 26.

consilliadory, pl. councillors. City Nightcap, i. 1 (Abstemia); iii. 1 (Lorenzo). Ital. consigliatori, pl.; from consiglio, council.

consort, a ‘concert’ of musical instruments. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, 1. 23 from the end; Northward Ho, ii. 1; Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, v. 2 (Lygones).

conster, to construe; a common spelling in old editions of Shakespeare, &c.

consumedly, excessively; ‘I believe they talked of me; for they laughed consumedly’, Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, iii. 1 (Scrub); consumedly in love’, id., iii. 2 (Scrub).

conteck, strife, discord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 64; Shep. Kal., May, 163; Sept., 86. ME. contek, strife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2003, B. 4122). Anglo-F. contec, ‘dÉbat, querelle’ (Moisy); contention (Gower, Mirour, 4647). See Dict. M. and S.

continent, one of the concentric ‘spheres’ in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy; each hollow crystal sphere carried with it one of the seven planets that revolved round the earth, each planet being attached to the concave surface of its own sphere. ‘As true . . . as doth that orbed continent [that spherical solar shell retain] the fire That severs day from night’ [i.e. the sun], Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 278; ‘Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs’ (i.e. from her own sphere to the spheres beyond), Milton, P. L. v. 422; ‘All subject under Luna’s continent’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1148); scene 9. 62 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D); ‘Luna, . . . trembling upon her concave continent’, iv. 1 (1543); scene 11. 15 (W.); p. 172, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘Judging the concave circle of the sun To hold the rest in his circumference’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1122); scene 9. 36 (W.); p. 167, col. 1 (D.).

contrive, to wear out, to spend; ‘Three ages, such as mortall men contrive’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 48; Tam. Shrew, i. 2. L. contrivi, pt. t. of conterere, to wear away; cp. ‘totum hunc contrivi diem’, Terence, Hec. 5. 3. 17. Not the same word as mod. E. contrive. See Nares.

conundrum, a whim, crotchet, conceit. B. Jonson, The Fox, v. 7 (Volpone).

convent, to convene, summon together, summon. Coriolanus, ii. 2. 59; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 17.

convert, to cause to return, to bring back; ‘Or if I stray he doth convert, And bring my minde in frame’, Herbert, Temple, Ps. xxiii; to turn aside from (intrans.), ‘When thou from youth convertest’, Sh. Sonn. xi.

convertite, a professed convert to a religious faith, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 2 (Barabas); a person converted to a better course of action, King John, v. 1. 19.

convey, a cant term for to steal. Merry Wives, i. 3. 52; Richard II, v. 317. Hence conveyance, trickery, artifice, 3 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 160.

convince, to overcome, overpower; ‘I will with wine and wassal so convince’, Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 21; to prove a person to be guilty, ‘Which of you convinceth mee of sinne?’ Bible, John viii. 46; Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 129; Webster, Appius and Virg. v. 3; Mirror for Mag., Glocester. st. 43; to refute in argument, ‘It sufficeth to convince atheism, but not to inform religion’, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 681.

convive, one who feasts with others, a table-companion. Beaumont, Psyche, x. 211; to feast together, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 272. F. convive, a guest; L. conviva, one who lives or feasts with others.

cony; see coney.

cooling card, a winning card in a card-game, that dashes the hopes of the adversary. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 84; Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 2 (Flavia).

copartiment, a compartment, panel. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (last line). Ital. compartimento, a partition.

copatain hat, a high-crowned hat (?). Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 69; ‘A copetain hatte made on a Flemmishe blocke’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 375. Prob. the same as copintank, copentank, a high-crowned hat in the form of a sugar-loaf; ‘A high cop-tank hat,’ North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 30. See NED. (s.v. Copintank).

cope, a purchase, bargain. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3 (351); scene 3. 5 (W.); p. 157, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘cope’, a prov. word meaning to exchange, barter, heard in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Cope, vb.² 1). Dutch koop, a sale, a buying. See Dict. (s.v. Cope, 3).

copel, a small pot made of bone-ash, used for melting gold or silver. Sir T. Browne, Urn-burial, ch. iii, § 18. Spelt coppell, Bacon, Sylva, § 799. F. coupelle, ‘a Coppell, the little Ashen pot or vessel wherein Goldsmiths melt or fine their Metals’ (Cotgr.); see Estienne, PrÉcellence, 142 (Lexique-Index, 400). Coupelle is a deriv. of coupe, a cup. Med. L. cuppa (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Cupel).

copeman, a chapman. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.). See cope.

copemate, copesmate, a person with whom one ‘copes’ or contends, an adversary. Golding, Metam. xii (ed. 1593, 279); Chapman, All Fools, ii (Valerio); a companion, comrade, Greene, Upstart Courtier (ed. 1871, 4), used fig. Lucrece, 925; female copesmate, mistress, paramour, B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 10 (Knowell).

coppe, the top, summit. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 202. 18; lf. 232, back, 26. Hence copped, peaked, Pericles, i. 1. 101; ‘High-copt hats’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. ME. cop: ‘the cop of the hill’ (Wyclif, Luke iv. 29). OE copp.

copy, abundance, copiousness. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 Carlo); Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Placentia). L. copia.

copy, copyhold, tenure of land ‘by copy’, i.e. according to the ‘copy’ of the manorial court-roll, used fig. Macbeth, iii. 2. 38.

coracine, a kind of fish like a perch, found in the Nile. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 10. L. coracinus, Gk. κορακῖνος, from κόραξ, a raven, from its black colour.

corant; see courant.

coranto, a quick dance. Hen. V, iii. 5. 33; Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Kickshaw). Ital. coranto, ‘a kinde of French dance’ (Florio); cp. F. courante, ‘a curranto’ (Cotgr.). See courant.

corasive, a sharp remedy, severe reproach. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 154). See corsive.

corbe, short for corbel. Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 6.

corbe, courbe, bent, crooked. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 56. ME. courbe (Gower, C. A. i. 1687). F. courbe, L. curvus.

corbed up, (prob.) controlled, as by a curb, curbed. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo).

cordwain, Spanish leather, orig. made at Cordova. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 6; Drayton, Eclogues, iv. 177. Spelt cordevan, Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 21. Span. cordovÁn, Spanish leather (Stevens).

coresie, vexation, a corroding, gnawing annoyance. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 24. In prov. use in Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Corrosy). F. corrosif (Cotgr.); for the change of suffix, cp. hasty, the E. representative of F. hastif. See corsive.

corned, horned, peaked, pointed; said of shoes. Skelton, Maner of the World, 26; Greene, Description of Chaucer, 13; ed. Dyce, p. 320. Cp. F. cornÉ, horned (Cotgr.).

cornel, a little grain, granule; ‘Bread is of many cornels compounded’, Conflict of Conscience, iv. 1 (Philologus); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 83.

cornel, a javelin made of cornel-wood. Used to translate L. cornus, Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 406.

cornelian, the fruit of the cornel-tree. Bacon, Essay 46, § 1.

cornes, pl. kinds of corn; corn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8, back, 4; lf. 88. 14.

cornet, a troop of horse; so called from its standard, which was a long horn-shapen pennon. 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 25; Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 2. 41. F. cornette, ‘a Cornet of Horse; the Ensign of a horse-company’ (Cotgr.).

cornet, a head-dress formerly worn by ladies; ‘Her cornet blacke’, Surrey, Complaint that his Ladie kept her face hidden, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 12. F. cornette, a horned head-dress; dim. of corne, a horn.

cornet, some kind of ornament (?); ‘With cornets at their footmen’s breeches’, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 872.

cornuto, a cuckold. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71. Ital. cornuto, a cuckold; lit. ‘furnished with horns’ (Florio).

coronal, a wreath of flowers, a garland. Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 11; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53.

coronel, a ‘colonel’. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 656, l. 9; lieutenant-coronel, B. Jonson, Every Man, iii. 5 (Knowell). Span. coronel, Ital. colonello, ‘a Colonel of a Regiment’ (Florio); a deriv. of colonna, cp. F. colonne de troupes, a column, a formation of troops narrow laterally and deep from front to rear; see Hatzfeld.

correption, reproof, rebuke. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 30: Augustus, § 12. L. correptio; deriv. of corripere, to reprove.

corrigidor, corregidor, a Spanish magistrate. Machin, Dumb Knight, v. 1 (Cyprus); Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 13. 58. See Stanford.

corrol, to crimson, to make like ‘coral’; ‘The . . . sunne corrols his cheeke’, Herrick, A Nuptial Verse to Mistress E. Lee, 4.

corser, a dealer, esp. a horse-dealer. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 119. 15; spelt courser, Beaumont and Fl., The Captain, v. 1 (Father). ME. corser, Wyclif, Works (ed. 1880, p. 172); corsowre of horse, ‘mange’ (Prompt. 94), Anglo-F. cossour, A.D. 1310, see Riley’s Memorials of London, Pref., p. xxii, Med. L. cociatorem, a broker, factor, dealer, cp. cocio (Ducange). The Ital. cozzone, a horse-courser (Florio), is from coctionem, a later form of cocionem, see Diez, 112.

corsive, for corrosive; anything that corrodes, grief, distress. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1. 7; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 14; Drayton, Barons’ Wars, iv. 14. See coresie.